Sanctuary Souls
by Lapis Love
Summary: His list of friends was non-existent but there was one who refused to leave his side. Was she his missing half, the key ingredient to being made whole again? Read and find out.
1. Partners

**A/N: I know I'm supposed to be working on Think Twice, but this Stefonnie idea popped up in my head and I felt motivated to get it out all on paper. For the purpose of this fic I changed the time where Stefan found out about Delena's kiss, so here it happens before Bonnie is reunited with her mom. Just read to find out why. But I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for reading!**

Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith and The CW. No copyright infringement is intended.

_**Night…**_

Some would consider this pagan territory, a lynching site, but to Stefan Salvatore it was just another place to concoct diabolical schemes that never seem to work in his favor. For every good plan there were a million little failures all around. He began to count them off in his head like dominos falling. Being Klaus' henchmen over the summer—check. Pushing away Elena in a desperate attempt to save her life—check. Losing Elena's love and respect—check. Becoming the town leper-check. Getting even with an old as dirt Original—check. Finding out his brother kissed his girl—priceless.

He sighed heavily as he walked the familiar path to the once grand mansion that sat on the outskirts of town. Parked adjacent to the house in the overgrown lot was Bonnie's clean as a whistle Prius. She better have good news for summoning him here in the dead of night or…he'd figure that part out later. His brain was slowly dissolving into mush in figuring out clever ways to stall Klaus and hold up his Bad-Stefan facade.

Stefan threw open the door with no impediments. The dead witches liked him because he was willing to do whatever it took to get rid of nature's number one abomination. Suddenly he had a flashback of when Damon came here with his chest all puffed out demanding answers to questions he should have asked himself a long time ago. That was funny to sit back and watch his brother throw his body around to avoid being made extra crispy by the rays of sunlight that filtered in.

But Stefan recalled hearing Elena and Damon's conversation as they walked towards the mansion. They honestly believed that Stefan had turned into Darth Vader overnight with no clear reason or explanation, and felt totally justified in treating him as enemy number one. It was hard explaining things to those with an infantile attention span. How was it they so easily forgot the many times _he _put _his_ life in danger for the both of them, and this was how they decided to show their gratitude?

By making out with one another on her freaking front porch!

Stefan may have been passive aggressive way back when, but he was a man of action now.

The floorboards protested loudly against his weight as he headed to the basement of the witches' house. The smell of candle wax was heavy in the air, factor in the smell of rot and decay, catching a hint of Bonnie's summery perfume was a much welcomed relief to his hypersensitive senses.

She stood with her back to him as she looked over each individual coffin as if doing inventory to make sure they were all accounted for. The one that was turning out to be a bitch to open still remained on its dais, but from the looks of it, Bonnie hadn't asked him to come here to show him the fruits of her labor.

He sighed _again_.

"Bonnie?"

She didn't jump when Stefan spoke her name. Bonnie merely turned around and faced him. He looked tired and exhausted and more than ready to give up, but the one thing she learned about Stefan in the two years she's known him was that he wasn't a quitter.

Her face was pinched which meant he was two seconds from being chewed out. Stefan ran a frustrated hand through his perfectly styled hair, the action causing his leather sleeve to crinkle nosily in the silent air.

"You were out of line, Stefan," she began without preamble.

Stefan had done so many out of line things this week it was hard for him to pinpoint what exactly she might be upset about. He shifted his weight to his left foot and stared—more like glared at her.

"You've lost me," he said. "You're going to have to refresh my memory because it's been a busy week."

Bonnie scoffed and folded her arms over her chest. "You're right about that so I'll get straight to the point. Do you remember Caroline's birthday? Punching out Matt and kidnapping Elena, forcing your blood into her, and then threatening to turn her into a vampire if Klaus didn't agree to ship his hybrids out of here? And oh, almost driving her off the same bridge that killed her parents," Bonnie shook her head as if someone just asked her to explain particle/wave duality. "That's why I wanted to talk to you. You're out of control!"

Inside Stefan felt his organs move but he kept his face notably blank. "I needed to get his hybrids out of here and that was the only solution I could think of to get him to act."

"And I want Klaus gone as much as the next person but I'm not going to threaten the life of someone I claim to care about to see that it happens. That was overboard, even for you, Stefan, and that wasn't the Stefan I agreed to help."

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I was calling his bluff. I had no intention of killing Elena."

"I don't think you really believe that. If Klaus refused you would have done the same thing Damon tried to do when all this stuff started. You would have taken her choice away."

"Did Elena put you up to this?" he asked impatiently.

"No, she has no idea that I'm here."

"I'm surprised since you couldn't seem to keep your mouth shut when I initially came to you asking—,"

Bonnie held up a hand, cutting him off. "You didn't ask for a damn thing, Stefan. You _told_ me to find a way to hide the coffins because I hate Klaus."

"Okay, fine semantics," he attempted to brush off the facts as they appeared. "I left the choice entirely up to you and you agreed."

She nodded her head. Stefan could understand where Bonnie's anger was coming from. She was essentially putting her life at risk in helping him keep Klaus' family away from him. If the man ever decided to corner her one day, Stefan figured Bonnie would fold simply because she wouldn't want to see anyone else she cared about get hurt. Yet his recklessness was the catalyst for some of the measures Klaus took in showing how ruthless he could be when things didn't go his way.

Alaric getting hit by a car ring any bells? The target had initially been Jeremy, but Alaric—Mystic Falls' own dark knight pushed the boy out of the way. Yet Jeremy had all of a sudden grown a pair and made that same hybrid who ran over Alaric, a head shorter. Honestly that was the only time Stefan could admit to being proud of Jeremy. It lasted for all of a hot second because in the next minute he was shipped off to Denver.

Oh well, one less crybaby to worry about.

"It was my choice, but I won't help someone who's going to willfully endanger not only my life but the people around me. This has got to stop. And if you don't get yourself together you're going to lose everything."

Stefan rolled his eyes. "Oh, please. Elena will forgive me eventually because that's what she does. I mean look, she forgave Damon and he snapped her brother's neck right in front of her. Flash forward a few months and she kisses him."

Bonnie's eyes widened a bit at the bomb Stefan just dropped. She knew about the kiss but she wasn't sure if Elena had any plans to share that tidbit of information with Stefan. Apparently she had.

"You know about that?"

Stefan could only nod his head.

Bonnie shifted a little on her feet. She felt a weird sense of morbid curiosity flash through her. "So what did you do?"

Stefan hunched a shoulder and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "I pimp smacked Damon."

She wanted to give him a high-five, she really did but asked instead, "Was there blood?"

"Unfortunately, no. But I did leave a nice little shiner on his cheek that made him look like he was wearing blush."

Softly Bonnie said, "To be a fly on the wall in that room." But then she resumed her focus. "That's not the point. The point I'm trying to make is the fact you need to find your integrity again because at the rate you're going you'd be willing to sacrifice every life in this town to stick it to Klaus, and I'm not going to let you do that."

Upon hearing the thinly veiled threat, Stefan's bluish-gray eyes darkened and became almost sinister. He began to approach Bonnie like a lion hunting, looking for weak and unsuspecting prey.

"Oh, yeah and just how are you going to stop me? For all your witchy bravado you aren't nearly ruthless enough to do what is necessary to stop me. You can kill me right now."

And to put her words to the test, Stefan spotted a chair not too far from him, kicked it over, snapped off a leg, and offered the piece to Bonnie. The witch in question stared at it, then up at the ferocity lining his eyes, back to the makeshift stake again.

Stefan pounced on her hesitation. "You're so tough you can ram this through my heart, give Klaus his coffins, and watch as he makes all of you his bitches. Something tells me you would be his favorite. I see it now. He'd have you on your hands and knees licking his boots and wiping his…"

Before he could finish his tirade, Bonnie sent him careening through the door, planting him on his ass as she calmly walked out of the dusty room into the much dustier hallway.

Writhing and completely defenseless Stefan could do nothing but grunt and roar in pain. All he could compare this feeling to was having ultraviolet rays liquidated and then injected into his body. The spirits of the witches howled furiously at his insolence, and the lit candles burned like small blow torches.

Bonnie loomed over Stefan as an invisible wind whipped her hair around her face. Lifting her foot, she placed her booted heel on his chest keeping him planted on the ground while maintaining the attack.

She smirked. "Do you know what I'm doing to you, Stefan? I'm turning your blood acidic. Feels like vervain is running through your system, doesn't it?"

His only response was to growl, cry, and grunt, and growl some more.

"You will show respect when you talk to a Bennett witch!"

_Would it be completely wrong of me to find her incredibly hot right now? _Stefan thought through the pain that was stabbing him all over. He stared up at her as she glared down at him, her green orbs glowing, and wondered for a moment if he had misjudged Bonnie thinking she was incapable of willfully hurting someone. But he could honestly say he respected her because she wasn't going to tolerate him speaking to her anyway from Sunday.

As soon as a little sliver of blood began to leak from Stefan's nose she called off the attack. The voices of the witches dissipated, and the candles burned at their normal rate.

Very carefully Stefan pushed himself to his feet, wobbled a little bit, coughed, felt the urge to pee, but cricked his neck and tested the range of motion in his shoulders. He brushed the dust off his jeans not for vanity reasons but because he couldn't quite look Bonnie in the eye just yet. He realized he shouldn't have insulted her because truly when he thought about it, in a town as bad as Mystic Falls, she was his only ally.

After a minute he finally looked at her. "I'm sorry, Bonnie. I was out of line. It won't happen again," his voice was gravelly and filled with apology and sincerity, so much that it reminded Bonnie of old Stefan.

However, she wouldn't be so quick to forgive him. Stefan had crossed a line with his assumptions about her and what she would allow someone to turn her into. She might be a lot of things but she would _never _agree to indentured servitude or forced slavery.

Stefan for his part tried not to wither under her raised chin and glaring stare down, something he had come to associate with her but something she only blessed his brother with.

Many times Stefan questioned if he and Damon had traded personalities over the course of the last six months, and truthfully he could agree somewhat. But he was in survival mode where the livelihood to do anything was your only motivation for getting up in the morning.

Suddenly an overwhelming sense of loneliness passed through Stefan. It was amazing how one tiny bite could snowball into Armageddon. He started this war with Klaus because he was "programmed" to attack the girl he loved and then his humanity was shut off. Now Stefan felt as if he were walking in a perpetual limbo where the only things that made sense were his rage and seeking revenge.

Bonnie's face softened when she saw a look of contriteness overcome him. But what really changed the game for her were the feelings that were rolling off Stefan like a radio signal and as hard as she tried to tune it out, she couldn't help but feel his loneliness as if it were her own.

She gasped because she had never experienced anything like that. And it scared the willies out of her.

And as tempting as it was to explore his feelings, to weave through the intricate patterns, the night was wearing down on Bonnie.

"I want to help you, Stefan. I will help you so long as your agenda doesn't include enforced vampirism on my close friends. You try it again and I will drive a stake through your heart. But…I understand your pain."

His eyes became sharper as they focused on Bonnie.

Now it was her turn to feel sad. "I know what it feels like to discover that the person you love, would defy the laws of nature to keep alive—cheated on you with someone else. I can write a book about that."

And that's where he remembered about Jeremy and Anna's non-discreet hook up. Now _that _had to hurt. How in the world could you explain that to a talk show host? My boyfriend cheated on me with the _ghost _of his ex-girlfriend? Syndicated television would never be the same again.

Yet the old him would have asked Bonnie a long time ago how she was handling that. Stefan could wallow for days in his misery but Bonnie merely slapped a smiley face band-aid on hers and kept it moving.

"We do make quite a pair don't we?" he said. "We're probably the two smartest people in town yet completely clueless when it comes to relationships."

"Are you saying you regret falling in love with Elena?"

"I'm saying that I always knew it would come to this and I fell anyways."

A corner of her mouth lifted, not in sympathy, but in agreement. "I knew Jeremy and I weren't going to last. I mean let's be real. He and I aren't on the same level. His life would have been in constant danger because of what I am."

And those were Stefan's exact thoughts in terms of his relationship with Elena.

"You and I…we're partners…tovarich, and I want to trust my partner." Bonnie held out her hand for Stefan to shake. He didn't need to study it but merely extended his hand.

They shook on it. And he shouldn't have been surprised by the flood of relief that came over him at knowing he didn't have to face this completely alone. There was Damon, but Damon could turn on him like a snake at any given moment. Elena was finicky as well, but the only die-hard person he could really depend on and trust was Bonnie.

Teasingly he asked, "Are you done yelling at me now? Can we get the hell out of here?"

Bonnie nodded her head and then with a few whispered words, killed all the candle flames and followed Stefan out of the house.

* * *

><p><strong>A few weeks later…<strong>

It felt good to have a friend—a real one someone he could show his humanity to and not worry about having his ass chewed out because he failed to make someone else's emergency his emergency. He and Bonnie fell into a rhythm where he would meet with her after school, they'd head over to the old mansion and would pour through all the grimoires she had pilfered from the Martin's hoping to find that missing ingredient to unlocking the box.

Bonnie would read over the words until her eyes were dry and the muscles in her neck and shoulders screamed from lack of movement. So during her breaks she'd take a stroll around the property that surrounded the abandoned place, listen to the sounds of nature, and wonder how far different her life would be if she weren't caught in the middle of a supernatural war.

Stefan for his part kept to himself, but occasionally he and Bonnie would engage in conversation that had nothing to do with trying to differentiate the pronunciation of a certain word.

And by doing this he learned things about her. He had learned to observe people, did so while he was still human, so from her facial expressions alone he could tell when she was pensive, frustrated, hungry, worried, scared, restless, impatient, and tired.

But through their conversations he learned that she was into suspense novels, didn't really like romance comedies, and that she had an intense fear of slugs.

And another thing he learned about Bonnie was that she liked to touch herself. A lot.

Not in a perverted way, but oftentimes he'd catch her rubbing her arms, or squeezing her fingers, or grazing her neck, or playing with her earlobe, or continuously running her hand along her thigh, or simply curling a strand of hair around her index finger.

He was becoming to see her not as a teenaged witch, but a sensualist. She loved smelling things. Like when he would go on a food run, Bonnie would first take a deep breath of the aroma of whatever he got for her to eat before taking a single bite. She would sometime's comment on his cologne.

And when it was time for them to leave for the day and show their faces to the rest of the world, when she slipped her little arms in her coat, she always closed her eyes reveling in the feel of the fabric gliding on her skin and would sigh very quietly, almost inaudibly that if he weren't a vampire with supersonic hearing he would have missed it.

But probably the best thing he learned about Bonnie—she had an incredible smile.

He could admit he wasn't the funniest man on the planet, but when he managed to tell a joke with perfect comedic timing, Bonnie would laugh, exposing teeth, tongue, and her tonsils. Her face became absolutely radiant when she smiled, and more often than not he found himself unable to look away.

Yet something on the side of him began to like doing things to get some kind of reaction out of Bonnie. For so long she had been like a military soldier. Stone faced and no-nonsense. Granted there was very little joy to be found in their world, he felt like he had done his good deed of the day if he could get her to crack a smile or rip down a brick from the wall she enshrined herself in.

That's when he suggested that after heavy, intense spell finding sessions, they'd go grab a cup of coffee from Mystic Grill to recharge their batteries.

At first Bonnie was apprehensive. She didn't think it was a good idea for the both of them to be seen together in public, but Stefan's argument was the ball was essentially in their court and they had no reason to hide and cower.

Bonnie agreed. Not like her phone was ringing off the hook and any alternative offers were being made at the moment.

It didn't take him long to figure out which coffees she liked and that she preferred eating muffins instead of chowing down on bagels or doughnuts. If her hands were cold, no matter how scorching hot her drink might be, Bonnie always insisted on holding it for a minute to warm her hands, before inhaling the rick aroma, and taking a sip.

And watching her drink kind of made his purely innocent thoughts turn into slightly pornographic images. But it had been so long since he last kissed, touched, held, hugged, or been with a woman. So long since he felt a comforting touch from a female hand. So one night when Bonnie placed her hand on top of his at The Grill to garner his attention, he jolted and then stared at their hands.

He wasn't sure if Bonnie felt anything—she was still talking after all—but the heat of her palm on the back of his hand singed him, and her warmth began to spread through his extremities until that one very _male _part of him engorged, lengthened, and felt like steel pressing against his thigh.

Stefan warred with himself if it would be smart to run or stay to find out where things might go. To push boundaries and limits and test loyalty, but he knew he couldn't do any of the above and that he had to be very careful, because if Bonnie suspected he was looking at her not as a friend but as a potential cut buddy, she'd pull the plug on their whole operation and send him suggestions via FedEx.

Yet he couldn't lose her. _He _wouldn't lose her because as it stood, she was the gatekeeper to his humanity. But most importantly he was remembering what it felt like to love and be loved by someone.

He was in trouble.

* * *

><p><strong>The Salvatore Boardinghouse<strong>

Stefan clicked off the light to his bathroom, tossed his dirty shirt into the hamper and fell on his bed face first. He balled up his pillow and rested his chin on top of it. Tonight had been particularly exhausting because he had to sit across a dinner table with Klaus and remember his manners, and act like he was ready to settle the score between them.

He wanted to do nothing of the sort. But his brother had said—couldn't exactly promise that Elijah was truly on their side and would uphold his end of the bargain. Yeah, he'd believe it when he saw it. Right now, words meant absolutely nothing to Stefan.

Other than eating a meal that really was delicious, and having that meal served by gorgeous women who had been compelled to be meals-on-legs when called for, there of course were only two hiccups tonight.

The first being his arm was roasted over an open fire like chestnuts, and the other which had been slightly more tragic was slipping into the old Lockwood property to find Bonnie and her mother unconscious.

Since this whole feud with Klaus began Stefan never felt mortally afraid. But seeing Bonnie immobile on the ground in an awkward position made his blood turn cold, and his humanity to his horror had slipped out in front of Damon of all low lives.

He could still heart her heartbeat and could practically taste the warmth of her skin on his tongue, but he needed more empirical proof that she was alive. So he automatically fell to his haunches, pushed her hair out of the way and placed two fingers on her jumping vein.

"She's alive," he said unnecessarily but the oral confirmation made him feel a thousand times better.

Without thinking he slipped his arms under Bonnie's legs and around her shoulders and lifted her easily off the ground. Damon stared at him a bit petulantly because he was left with finding a way to get to Mama Bennett who was unfortunately passed out in the part of the cave vampires couldn't enter into.

Stefan didn't care what measures Damon would have to take to complete his task, his only concern was making sure Bonnie was okay because he vaguely remembered seeing that the coffin they had spent weeks trying to open was now open, and the contents inside—vanished.

He'd worry about that later, Stefan decided as he placed Bonnie into the backseat of his car.

She moved a bit and her eyes fluttered before opening. Bonnie lifted her head up just enough to try to make out the person who was looming over her.

Groggily she asked, "Stefan?"

"Yeah, it's me. How do you feel?" he couldn't help it, he had to touch her again to make sure she was all right. So he ran the pad of his thumb over her cheek.

"My head…" she winced. "It hurts."

"Do you remember what happened?"

Bonnie sat up slowly and looked around as if she were lost. "All I remember is leaving the cave to tell Damon about the coffin and when I came back, Abby…oh my God where is she?" Her heart began to pound.

"She's fine. Damon's with her."

Her heart slowed again. "She did it…she opened the coffin. I only got a glimpse but I think it was Klaus' mom. She did something to me after that."

Stefan nodded his head and slightly cursed. Now they may have a vengeful Original witch or whatever the hell she was supposed to be on their hands.

He'd worry about that tomorrow. The only thing important was the girl sitting dazed in front of him.

Coming back to the present, all Stefan could really focus on was the warmth and softness of Bonnie's skin and the feel of her hair as it tickled his neck and the bottom of his chin while he carried her. He wondered how her hair would feel against his naked torso, how her tiny hands would feel on his skin touching him in forbidden places.

His body sprang to life tenting his gray jogging pants.

Stefan cursed and tried to ignore its persistent throbbing, but it pounded only one consistent mantra: we want Bonnie, we want Bonnie, we want Bonnie.

"Well, that's too bad because she ain't here," he glared at his equipment and turned on his side and shut his eyes.

Big mistake because all he could see were visions of caramel skin, big smiles, and an alluring pair of green eyes.

There were few options left such as satisfy himself but...

Growling, Stefan knew sleep would never come in his current state and if he took matters into his own hands, literally, he'd only go back to feeling miserable.

So he hopped off the bed, jumped up for that wooden beam and began to do pull ups. He wasn't going to do this. He wouldn't turn into his brother and lust over a woman he could never have. And Bonnie deserved more than being an indiscretion, a one night stand, friends with benefits.

His cell buzzed halting his exercises. Stefan had retrieved it in an instant, saw who was calling and kept his face devoid of any and all emotion.

"Hello?" he spoke clearly into the unit.

"Hi, I hope I'm not catching you at a bad time."

"It's never a bad time."

"Did you hear about what happened to Alaric tonight?"

"Yeah, Damon filled me in," Stefan took a seat on the edge of his bed. "Looks like we have another problem on our hands on top of Klaus and his family."

"Do you have any plans to look into what's going on?"

No, he just wanted to focus on calming down his body at the moment. And now after hearing her voice it wasn't happening any time soon. Stefan stabbed the heel of his hand into his eye socket. He didn't want to be rude, but he couldn't stay on the phone with Bonnie all night. He might say something he won't have any regrets about later.

"Actually can we talk about that tomorrow? I'd…I'd really like to get some shut eye," he said.

There was a brief pause on Bonnie's end before her voice came through again. "Sure, no problem. I'll see you at our spot."

This time he allowed a small smile to grace his face at her "our" reference. "I'll be there. Sleep tight, tovarich."

"You as well…partner."

TBC

**A/N: I think I'll probably tell this from Stefan's perspective and a little from Bonnie's. I haven't really decided yet. After seeing the pic for the upcoming episode and realizing that no person of color was invited and last I checked this is Black History Month—I guess Bonnie, Abby, and Tyler must be at an NAACP meeting watching Roots or something. But I digress. This story is what I like to say are "filler" moments of things that could have happened before we're introduced to a new episode or to wrap up what happened in a prior episode since there hasn't been any Bonnie scenes, from my perspective, that have had any substance. They could have done more with the reunion with her mom but somehow it got turned into Stelena. But anyways, I hope you guys liked it. Let me know what you think! Love you guys!**


	2. Invite Me In

**A/N: How the ball should have gone down. Point. Blank. Enjoy you guys!**

"Should I put you in time out now, or wait until later?"

Stefan turned his head only infinitesimally to look at his brother. He understood the reason for the question and the implication it implied—that while in public Stefan didn't know how to act. Well, with all their chips being down, and they showed their final hand and still lost the pot, Stefan figured the war he started with Klaus was finally over. However, the next step obviously was convincing the first family of vampirism to leave town permanently. If they had to share space for the next thousand years, Stefan had no idea what he might do.

He could always go back to Italy where he was living before the soil of Mystic Falls called him home. Maybe his thought on that was too simplistic because he had avoided Virginia for an obvious reason. Now if he had listened to his instincts and stayed away his life would probably be radically different.

"Just do me one huge favor, Damon…stay away from me."

Damon smirked and was ready to reply he'd stay on his arse like white on rice all night if he felt like it, but then someone entering the sprawling mansion caught his attention, and Damon became awestruck.

Stefan inwardly rolled his eyes and looked towards the entrance as Elena walked through in an elaborate ball gown that looked custom made for the occasion. With her long raven locks swept to one side, hands ensconced in black satin gloves, and a black fur-lined shawl wrapped around her shoulders, Elena held up her skirts as she stepped through the atrium marveling at the opulence of the room.

It was a little startling that Stefan had no outward reaction other than mild interest in her looks because she was simply a female. Last year he would have been at her side instantly—no no—they would have arrived together like the new age Barbie and Ken. Men would have stared at him enviously, whereas the girls would attempt to scratch Elena's eyes out. All of that should have irrationally saddened him but Stefan felt an odd sense of relief.

He no longer had to constantly show he was worthy of being loved by a human.

Neither brother made any kind of move to walk over to Elena. That was only because Elijah popped up out of nowhere, offering to take her shawl and to hand her a flute of champagne. A waiter passed by the Salvatore boys, and both retrieved a glass for themselves and finally headed in opposite directions.

As usual Damon went sniffing after Elena and Stefan tried to locate one person he might be mildly interested in having a conversation with. Unfortunately no such person was around.

And as much as he may have wanted to engage in conversation, of course the _last _person he actually wanted to talk to appeared right behind him bringing along his aura of doom and gloom.

"Stefan," Klaus said jovially enough.

The caramel-haired vampire slowly turned around Russell Crowe/Gladiator style. He imagined himself saying: _My name is Stevanious Decimus Salvatorious, sibling to a dumb ass brother, ex-lover of a science fiction double, and I will have my revenge in this life or the next. _

There was an orchestra playing in the background but the music was all wrong. It quite simply wasn't dramatic enough.

"What do you want?" Stefan asked or more like demanded.

Klaus flashed his dimples until his eyes turned flat with calculation. "The same thing I've always wanted for a thousand years. To be reunited with my family."

Stefan held up his glass in salute. "And are you learning that family can be highly overrated? Men like us—we're better off left to our own devices because family has a way of bringing out the worst in us."

Klaus stared at Stefan a bit strangely for a moment as he reflected on his none-too-subtle words. He knew of the Salvatore boys' history with one another and it was painfully obvious to everyone with a working set of eyes that Damon fancied himself in love with Elena just like he fancied himself in love with Katherine. Stefan was quite simply tired of having to share everything he had with his brother, and yes—even Klaus could commiserate with him on that front.

His eyes betrayed him by searching the crowd for the one brother everyone he ever encountered preferred over him.

Elijah was currently holding court with Elena looking a little too comfortable talking to the doppelganger as if they were life long friends. Niklaus was neither foolish nor stupid and it seemed his dumb brother on the other hand was allowing himself to be ensnared once again in the Petrova trap.

Pussy whipped, all of them were pussy whipped yet the only one to tap that was Stefan.

And from the looks of things Stefan could careless who Elena decided to take home and screw tonight. He had absolved himself of the doom that was his relationship.

Interesting indeed.

"Has your time with me changed you so much that you won't even bat an eyelash if I ask you how you'd feel about Elena screwing your brother?"

Stefan's eye twitched only at Klaus imprudence, not the actual implication. Stefan shifted until he stood almost toe-to-toe with Klaus, staring the hybrid in the face.

"What Elena does…I don't give a damn anymore. Our relationship has run its course," Stefan hunched a shoulder and buried his hand in his pant pocket. "You were right the other night, Klaus. Elena is much better off without me or Damon in her life. Ever since we showed up…our presence has caused the systematic murder of her family. And that's blood that will _never _wash off."

Klaus smirked but not because he was laughing at Stefan. "And I have to admit I was wrong, Stefan…you do have a brain. You were able to evade me for weeks, enlisting the help of the hundred dead witches and one very determined Bennett to keep my family from me. You can be resourceful when you need to be…"

"If you're about to extend me an offer of employment to rejoin your harem, here's what I'm going to say to that, Klaus. Go get a blow job from a damn shark." With those parting words, Stefan walked off.

Music for a traditional waltz began to play. Damon—per usual had bullied his way to a dance with Elena who tried to keep her game face on. She was here, rubbing elbows with the family who were the predecessors of the vampire bloodline, waiting to have a meeting with the matriarch of the family. Elijah told her that Esther would only speak to her alone. Damon was determined not to let her out of his sight for a moment, whereas Stefan was simply there to make sure none of them were falling into a trap.

As she danced with Damon who moved surprisingly well, not so surprising since this wasn't their first time dancing together, she couldn't help but search the room for Stefan.

He looked so dapper in his tux, like the Stefan she fell in love with. But there was Damon who had been all the things she needed him to be as she was plagued by insomnia because she was worried about Stefan as he traveled the nation over with Klaus doing Lord knew what.

She missed what they had but knew she needed to officially let him go. However, call it her stubborn streak, Elena wasn't quite ready to let him go because she still believed he loved her, despite what came out of his mouth.

One of the things Elena learned about Stefan was that he'd say what was necessary to get someone to believe he no longer cared, and the harder he fought, that just meant the more he cared.

However…there _was _something bothering her about her own assumption. Stefan was detached—yes that was a given considering she admitted to him about kissing Damon. Maybe deep down she came clean because she was hoping it'd be the straw to break the camel's back, and Stefan would finally let all of his humanity come back in, and he'd fight for their relationship.

Didn't happen, though.

Now he kept her and everyone else at arm's length. Except one person.

"You haven't seen Bonnie since you've been here, have you?" Elena questioned.

She and Damon were now dancing face-to-face. "No. And why would I be looking for the witch?"

Elena pursed her lips in disapproval. It irked her Damon could sometimes treat Bonnie as if she were no more significant than the man who delivered his dry cleaning.

"Because she was invited and you know she holds a special place of hatred in her heart for Klaus. And what is with him? One minute he's trying to kill everyone in sight, and the next…he's saving Caroline's life."

Damon snorted. "Yeah, he would definitely take home the Super Villain of the Year Award."

Elena chuckled a tiny bit.

"But let Bonnie take care of Bonnie and Klaus and whatever else comes along because that's what she's good at. You want to know what I'm good at…watching your back…" he ran his eyes over Elena salaciously, which made her blush profusely. "And your front," he added.

Back across the room, Stefan hung on the wall like a picture cataloging everyone who was present. Some the couples he saw dancing really made him want to scratch his scalp like a primate. Rebekah and Matt, Elena and Elijah, and Klaus and Caroline, now the last two he could honestly say he didn't see coming.

Upon thinking about Caroline his thoughts shifted to Tyler and Stefan wondered why he hadn't asked where Klaus' first successful hybrid was. Inwardly, Stefan shrugged. He and Tyler had never been close, never been friends, and that certainly wasn't a missed opportunity he was crying any tears over.

He roughly ran his hand over the back of his neck. Stefan hated formalwear when he was human which meant he detested it now. His bowtie felt like a noose around his neck, and the orchestra music was making feel him tried and sloppy. Stefan flicked his wrist and glared at his watch. The party had been in full swing for an hour and a half and Bonnie had yet to walk her tail through the front door. Didn't she know she was the only remotely interesting person he liked being around?

Stefan growled lowly. He didn't like feeling antsy and like some prepubescent boy waiting for his crush to acknowledge his existence. These feelings were reminding him that as long as he may walk the earth, he was still a seventeen year old boy.

He couldn't take it anymore. If he couldn't see Bonnie with his own two eyes, he'd call her and hear her voice. If she decided not to show up to the invitation only ball, that was her prerogative, but to leave him stranded—freaking unacceptable.

Just as he pulled his cell phone out of his pant pocket a hush kind of fell over the entire room. Stefan stared out into the crowd and noticed that almost everyone was gazing towards the atrium.

Pushing away from the wall, Stefan's patent leather shoes scuffed across the marble floor until he could see what had drawn everyone's attention.

Bonnie stood under the massive chandelier with a no-nonsense look on her face, yet she still managed to captivate the audience with the pose she was inadvertently striking in her elaborate sweetheart neckline, flower embellishments full skirt gown. It was beautiful and classic—like a young bride she looked because the dress was white, alabaster, the color of a vampire's skin. Yet what made the gown even more stunning was the peek-a-boo split in the front that only became noticeable when Bonnie walked, exposing her left leg all the way to her upper thigh.

Instantly his thoughts shifted to the gutter, and Stefan imagined licking whipped cream off Bonnie's leg and other places to boot.

What was wrong with him? Having feelings of horniness and battling sexual frustration on a daily basis? Just pop a Fuckitol tablet and then say Fucukitol saved my life.

A server with a tray full of champagne flutes paused in front of Bonnie who took one and then lifted the glass up towards Esther who had been watching her closely from the staircase. The younger witch took a tiny sip after Esther held her glass up in tribute to Bonnie as well. After the brief acknowledgment, Bonnie sat her flute down the server's tray and became self-consciously aware of the fact she alone had the impact to halt the dancing and stop all conversation. She smiled at everyone who gawked at her and little by little conversations resumed but tongues were wagging about her. Bonnie felt the tips of her ears burning.

She dipped her head a bit and tried her best to get lost in the crowd. Unfortunately the room was too big and no matter where she went, Bonnie stood out like Lady Gaga.

Elijah stepped into her path, and Bonnie raised her chin. And he wasn't shy about letting her know he was checking her out.

"Miss Bennett, welcome to my home."

Bonnie folded her arms over her chest. "Next to your brother you are the _last _person I actually want to have a conversation with. Can you step aside, please so I can say hello to my friends?"

Elijah honored her request and allowed Bonnie to pass, yet he caught her by the wrist and swung her around until her chest ran into his and before she could deliver a shout of protest, they were dancing.

"I owe you an apology for going back on my word. I had promised that I would kill Klaus yet I let him play me for a fool, and as I result," the corners of Elijah's eyes crinkled not in humor but with something else—regret maybe, constipation, Bonnie wasn't sure. "I was stabbed through the heart."

Bonnie shrugged as if to say would you expect anything less from a snake? "Well, you know what they say, Elijah, never trust a scorpion even if it promises not to sting you if you help it across water. So you can't get mad when he does and ask why he betrayed you. It's his nature. Animals can't fight their nature."

"So very true, Bonnie, and might I add how exquisite you look tonight? Not a man in this room can keep his eyes off you."

She slighted Elijah with a bored look. "Sorry, you must have me confused with some chick with self-esteem issues. Flattery will only get you in the grave with me."

He chuckled wholeheartedly at that. Something caught Elijah's attention and he infinitesimally nodded his head and stepped away from Bonnie.

"My mother would like to have a word with you."

Yeah, and Bonnie would like to have several with her as well. Bonnie looked around the massive room and spotted Damon and Elena having their usual moment of Damon trying to put the moves on her while Elena pretended to be annoyed. Matt was standing next to Rebekah as the both of them blonde and blue-eyed just crowd surf.

She didn't stop craning her neck until she spotted Stefan who had his gaze locked on her like a torpedo missile. Instantly she felt warmed by the gesture and he mouthed if she were okay. Bonnie nodded her head and then picked up her skirt, walked up the grand staircase, and headed into one of the rooms with the mother of the Mikaelson clan.

The room was intimately lit, the furnishings expensive and tasteful, yet Bonnie felt no warmth in this place. Finn stood next to his mother's side like a bodyguard and didn't leave until he was given the order to do so.

Esther stood in front of a lacquered desk but waved her hand to the brown leather sofa offering Bonnie a seat.

She chose to remain standing. "You wanted to have a word with me," Bonnie spoke calmy though on the inside she felt her limbs wanting to tremble.

Esther offered her a crooked smile. "I did, Bonnie. I know you must think the worst of me."

Bonnie gave an undignified snort. "Well, my mother and I were trapped in a cave trying to unlock your coffin and instead of saying 'thank you for freeing me', you put a spell on us or knocked us unconscious or whatever it was you did. I'm sorry if I'm not feeling…receptive to you right now."

Esther smiled. "Your spirit reminds me of someone. She was strong-willed and keenly intelligent. I respected her," she took a seat on the couch. "And it's due to her how I am alive today."

"So you're not a vampire?"

"No. Nature has strict laws about being both at once."

"Yet your son is a hybrid."

"And I tried every measure I could think of, in those times, to make sure he never activated his dormant side."

"Yet he did anyways."

Esther didn't look sad or resigned. "Yes, he did," she replied flatly after awhile. "But I didn't want a private audience with you to talk about my son. It was to tell you…my family and yours have been connected for over a thousand years."

Bonnie's eyebrows nearly lifted off her forehead. She took a step toward Esther before pausing.

"How do you mean?"

"Please," Esther tapped the couch. "Sit. It is a long story to tell."

Bonnie sat down reluctantly and listened as Esther filled in the blanks to her family history she never would have learned about otherwise. The more she listened the more fascinated Bonnie became in wanting to know this Ayana woman and the countless others Esther used for her own gain. And the more she listened and heard the underlining implications of what was being shared with her, Bonnie felt her blood pressure skyrocketing.

And at the conclusion of Esther's story that's exactly what she did—skyrocketed off the couch and paced madly around the room.

"You've been using my family for centuries…putting us in danger at every single turn and inadvertently or purposely making us indentured slaves to all of _your _kind. Give me one good reason not to kill you right now!"

Esther stood to her feet as well and stared imploringly at Bonnie. "Because the story isn't complete. Tonight I am implementing a ritual that will bind my children's lives together, and I will need your help along with Abby's to right the wrong I created a thousand years ago. Klaus must be killed—and it is my duty to see that it is done.

"I owe you a world of thanks, Bonnie," Esther continued, "and I'm here to restore to you what I took from others in your family for so long."

Esther held out her hands, palm facing up and waited for Bonnie to place her hands on top.

"Why should I trust you, Esther? Your family has proven to me time after time again that they can't keep their word. What makes you any different?"

Esther smiled then. "I'm a witch and witches watch out for their own first and foremost."

* * *

><p>Stefan didn't know what was going on upstairs. Bonnie and Esther had been missing for nearly half an hour yet the party was still in full swing. He had lost count of how many glasses of champagne he had consumed as he waited impatiently to finally have a moment alone with Bonnie. If he didn't talk to her soon, he might have to cause a scene.<p>

A door opened and Bonnie stepped out and began walking down the stairs. She appeared fine for the most part as Stefan met her at the bottom of the staircase.

When she reached him, her floral and natural scent flooded his nostrils and Stefan's eyes were two seconds from rolling into the back of his head. She smelled so good he had the sudden urge to lick his fingers clean.

"Tovarich," Stefan said standing perhaps three inches too close to her.

She smiled a great smile of relief and boldly ran her eyes over Stefan and nodded her head in approval.

"Are you all right?" Stefan handed her the other half full flute of champagne.

Bonnie accepted the drink and took a small sip. "I will be, Stefan. You look amazing."

"And you look like a goddess. On top of being Miss Popularity. You weren't even been in the building for five minutes before Elijah was crowding your space and then Esther…"

She grinned, "Now you."

Stefan took a sip of his champagne. "Now me. Are you sure you're okay?"

Bonnie nodded. She felt better than okay, she felt freaking ecstatic. She had a stock pile of a thousand years of power zinging through her veins. If she wanted, Bonnie could lift this sprawling mansion over her head with a single thought. Yet no one could know the source of her strength. Not yet at least.

"I'm fine, but you know what I can't do? I can't prance around like everything is kosher. Why do you think it took me so long to get here? It wasn't because I wanted to look nice. Klaus has killed entire families—or ordered others to kill off entire generations, and the good people of Mystic Falls just welcomes him in with open arms," she shook her head.

Pride danced in Stefan's bluish-gray eyes. He snickered in appreciation of her spiel. More than likely she rehearsed that.

"You do realize he can hear you, right?"

"Does a fart smell?"

He couldn't help it. Stefan laughed. Lately Bonnie had been the only person who could get him to remember he knew how to do that.

Bonnie continued. "I will never be a fan of his, trust him, or like him, so I can walk around with the stink face and be at peace. I only came just in the event anything should go down."

Part of Stefan wished Bonnie would stop shouldering the responsibility of keeping certain people from making dumb decisions e.g. Elena. It wouldn't surprise Stefan if Elena confided in Bonnie that Esther wanted to talk to her, so naturally Bonnie would take it upon herself to support her friend in anyway she could. If that meant dressing up in a ridiculously beautiful gown and acting disinterested in everything around her—so be it.

Yet Stefan wanted Bonnie to admit that she liked dressing up because it was fun and it was what girls her age did. They went to parties, flirted with boys, and acted totally irresponsibly.

Bonnie on the other hand would never admit that.

However, the only thing Stefan wished was liable to go down was the zipper to his pants and the one holding Bonnie's dress in place. Stefan found it astonishing and a little off setting that he was finding it difficult to keep his hands to himself. He was desperate to know what she'd feel like in his arms.

He was a man-of-action now, so Stefan took her champagne glass out of her hand, and handed it blindly to one of the party goers who looked less than thrilled by being confused with the hired help, took Bonnie by the hand and led her to the dance floor.

Stefan could feel her dragging her feet. "What are you doing?"

Stefan tossed his answer over his shoulder. "We're going to cut a rug, Bons." He swung the diminutive girl in front of him, and planted one hand firmly on her tight waist, and held Bonnie's right hand in his.

He began to lead her into a contemporary tango.

"What are they trying to do, make a baby?" Damon asked as he watched his brother dance with the witch. Grudgingly he had to admit they moved well together. Bonnie trusted Stefan as evidence by the fact she allowed him to thrust her into the air for daring lifts that would've had anyone else screaming to high heaven.

They were putting on quite a show that they had drawn the attention of Klaus' disgruntled and newly risen brothers: Kol and Finn.

Out the corner of his eyes Damon tried to gauge Elena's reaction to her best friend dancing with her ex and looking more than comfortable doing so.

Elena had perfected her poker face over the last few months, tightening up her veneer, growing a hard shell over her skin. As much as Damon knew it was necessary, he kind of missed soft and naïve Elena. Damon wasn't really sure how to read _this _Elena, but he knew her heart and right now it was palpitating and possibly aching.

He was an expert on standing aside and watching the person you love in the arms of someone else.

Well, there was one remedy to the melancholia choking the air between them. Damon extended his hand. Elena stared at his appendage, then up at Damon. She wasn't going to engage in some primitive caveman display. Stefan could dance with who he liked. They were no longer together.

Still…

Watching Stefan dance with Bonnie…it was hard to miss the look of peace on his face. Stefan hadn't looked that relaxed in months. Did it prick Elena, rub her the wrong way that she wasn't the source of Stefan's sliver of joy? Naturally.

She still loved him.

"I need to use the ladies room. Excuse me," she walked off before Damon could say anything.

Without her permission Bonnie felt her body get loose as she rotated her hips and moved her feet across the floor. She hadn't felt this carefree in months having spent so much time walking on eggshells, pins and needles.

Stefan spun her around and dipped her causing her to giggle—actually giggle. She was a little rusty in that department.

Bonnie began to rundown a checklist on the little disasters she encountered and/or had to fix this past year alone. Having to send back Matt's sister, having to save Matt, being cheated on by the first guy she loved who not once said he loved her, discovering her mother was alive and kicking and had opted to raise her ex-boyfriend's son instead of returning home to her own flesh and blood.

When she looked at things in this light, the scales certainly didn't tip in her favor.

But there were little things she was getting used to. Like being able to talk and open up to someone who didn't know her history like the back of their hand, and could offer up a fresh perspective. Of having someone to watch after her instead of _always_ having to watch over others.

And what do you know, that person was standing right in front of her making her remember what it felt like to be young and to actually have a crush on someone.

Bonnie gulped at the sudden realization.

She was crushing on Stefan. OMG I'm crushing! Bonnie thought wildly. And the crush didn't just extend to the Stefan she met when he moved back to Mystic Falls, but part of her _liked _Ripper Stefan as well because he was more—what was the word?—assertive, take charge, goal-oriented? The duality of not only liking a vampire but liking the brute part of him as well slightly petrified Bonnie because what did that say about her?

Awkwardly, Bonnie pulled away from the younger Salvatore. He frowned at her, his forehead began brooding.

"Sorry, nature calls," Bonnie said lamely and quickly rushed off to the bathroom which of course she had no idea where it was to begin with.

Well she found one on the second floor. Bonnie sat down at the vanity and looked at her reflection. She sat for a moment before opening up her clutch and removing her lip gloss.

Her face was fine but she felt if she was going to hide in the bathroom like a two-year old she might as well make good use of the time.

She couldn't believe this. Had her feelings for Stefan changed so dramatically from…hell she didn't even know what label was appropriate to place on what they had because nothing seemed fitting. They weren't friends. Accomplices—maybe. Associates—for sure. But there had been nothing intimate between them until Stefan enlisted her help with the coffins and they began spending all their free time together.

That had to be it, then. Bonnie had grown used and accustomed to Stefan's presence and…and? And what? She latched on to his attention?

Okay, he was cute. No, puppies were cute. Newborn babies were cute. Stefan surpassed both. He was…hot! Dashingly debonair and could make plain tee shirts and flannel threads look like haute couture fashion. Bonnie couldn't forget about his perfect hair, nor those deep-set mood ring eyes. One minute leaf green, another minute aquamarine, then sometimes hazel, and plenty of other times they were gray.

Questions began to plague Bonnie. Was Stefan struggling with the same realization, or was this one-sided? Was he still in love with Elena or was he over her? Bonnie had seen plenty of guys, Matt in particular struggle to get over the brunette eighth wonder of the world. The confused witch didn't know what it was about her friend that could make a man or monster depending on one's perspective like Damon fall for her, or to garner the unofficial loyalty of a thousand year old vampire. That had to be Elena's supernatural talent other than being a doppelganger or perhaps it was a side effect of being one.

It was best not to look too deeply into anything. Not the way Stefan smiled at her, or the way his entire demeanor seemed to lighten up and change simply because she was near. It meant nothing. He was still a vampire in love with a human who happened to be her best friend.

Suddenly the door flew open and a despondent Klaus walked in.

Bonnie's eyes enlarged to UFO proportions as she was seemingly ignored by the hybrid. His bowtie was unraveled, the top three buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned, and his eyes were glassy. Was it even possible for his kind to get drunk?

_What an epic failure, _Klaus thought and flounced backwards on an overstuffed chair and chugged from a bottle. Finally he noticed that he wasn't completely alone in the room. The Bennett witch was staring at him with wide eyes in the reflection of the mirror.

"Witch," he said.

"Piece of shit," escaped her mouth before she could stop it. Bonnie quickly stuffed her lip gloss back into her purse and rose abruptly from the vanity. As she neared the door, Klaus shot off the chair and barred the exit, preventing her escape.

Bonnie cursed in her head and glared up at him. "Move, please," she bit out through clenched teeth.

"You're Caroline's friend, right? How do you win that girl? I buy her a diamond bracelet and a gorgeous gown…and still it's not enough."

Bonnie snorted derisively. "Oh, so now you like Caroline? Umm, excuse me but weren't you the dummy who commanded her boyfriend to bite her? Do you think Caroline is going to turn a blind eye to that? You really are as dumb as you look. And my friend can't be bought."

Klaus drew his lips in as if he ate a lemon and anger flashed through his eyes. If he was going to kill her, Bonnie already decided she'd come back and haunt his ass.

The fire in the hybrid's eyes dimmed. "You know, I wanted no part of this…lavish farce of an affair. But my mother insisted she wanted to forgive me and unite the family again. I can't help but feel like my brothers are looking for a reason and way to kill me in my sleep."

"Good for them," Bonnie sniffed.

Klaus moved away from Bonnie and flopped on the chair again. He leaned back until his head rested on the back of it.

"This was not the plan I envisioned in my head…"

Bonnie rolled her eyes and opened the door. "I hate to break this to you, Klaus, but you have no one to blame but yourself. You treat people like crap and then expect them to be all lovey-dovey towards you. That's not realistic. But, again why am I wasting breath talking to you?"

Saying nothing further, Bonnie walked out of the room and bumped into a hard chest and dark eyes.

"Sorry," Bonnie mumbled and walked around the vampire who had been identified as Kol. He really did look like Elijah, startlingly so. Still he was on her do-not-trust list.

"I'm afraid I'm the one who must apologize because you've been in my home for over an hour, and I haven't even introduced myself. I'm Kol…Kol Mikaelson."

He held out a hand towards Bonnie who ignored it. She pursed her lips. Kol's smile was meant to disarm but it did little for Bonnie.

Kol let his hand drop back to his side. "Is Niklaus crying his same old tune of no one loving him? In a thousand years he's still a scared little imp with daddy issues."

"As nice as it is to bash Klaus, I have friends who are waiting for me. Excuse me."

Kol of course began to walk back down to the main floor with Bonnie, keeping stride with her. She sighed in exasperation.

"I couldn't help but overhear your conversation with the younger Salvatore, and from what I've been able to gather you were the most successful in almost killing my brother."

Bonnie halted on the grand staircase and faced Kol. He was trying and failing from keeping the mirth off his face. Instinct was telling her that Kol wasn't looking to validate the stories he's heard about her to give justification for attacking her at a late date in retaliation. She still had to tread carefully.

He smirked again. "All I can say to that is, damn I missed a good show."

"It was a _great_ show…until Elijah ruined everything," Bonnie proceeded down the stairs again. She spotted Damon and Elena sharing some heated words. Matt had disappeared, and Caroline stood talking with Mayor Lockwood more than likely about Tyler.

"Yes, he has that one irritating factor about him. His moral compass has ruined a great many of my plans. Please," Kol extended his hand. "Allow me to pay tribute to your bravery with one dance."

Bonnie just stared at him.

"I noticed you didn't come with anyone."

"I didn't," she answered and wondered where he was going with this.

Kol saddled just a bit closer to Bonnie. "That prompts me to ask what is wrong with the men of this town?"

"I'd like to know the same thing," she said a bit bitterly.

"Well, I have the perfect solution. Men always want what they can't have. So-,"

Bonnie sighed and slapped her palm in his.

Stefan had been circling the room like a caged wolf. Elena had come to him not long after Bonnie just ditched him on the dance floor. She needed to find a way to shake off her personal pit bull aptly named Damon long enough to finally go and have that talk with Mama Original. Yeah, it felt great to snap Damon's neck like a chiropractor gone wild, but now his adrenaline was up.

It increased greatly as he spotted Bonnie dancing with Kol. He watched them like a stalker, confiscated another flute of champagne and threw it back like a shot.

Kol said something that made Bonnie laugh and the Original had slipped his hand on Bonnie's thigh.

Stefan bit a piece of the rim of the glass off like a Styrofoam cup. Chewing glass was…not fun.

Bonnie's back was pressed against Kol's front. "This house offers great views of the town, but I'm staring at the best one."

Okay so she may have blushed at the lame come-on. Bonnie felt like she was in foreign country with no passport or visa. Here was this gorgeous guy flirting with her and all that was going through her mind was why? Why wasn't he chasing after Elena or Caroline? Most guys did and Bonnie had resigned herself to the sidekick role. She was only good for one thing.

Anger rushed through her veins and suddenly she just wanted throw up both middle fingers before blasting the mansion to smithereens but she suppressed it.

Kol spun her around and the song came to a close. "We should do this again."

"What makes you think I'd want to see you again after tonight?" she asked a little saucily and wondered where this was coming from. Hadn't she just realized that she might have a crush on Stefan?

Yeah, crushes come and go but actually being involved with someone…it wasn't rare but for her it was.

Not saying she wanted to be with Kol. She only just met him and she wasn't sure what Esther had in store for her family.

"I'm a confident man, Miss Bennett, and I'm also a gambling man. I know when to go all in and when to fold. And I'm not folding. Not by a long shot."

Kol took her hand and kissed it. He took two steps backwards and disappeared.

Well, the night had been interesting and weird and now all Bonnie wanted to do was go home and experiment with her new powers. She didn't see any of her friends and thought just as well. Things across the board were just off and not right. Bonnie did want to speak to Caroline and ask how she was handling the loss of her father, but if she were in such high spirits to attend the Mikaelson family ball, well—Bonnie knew appearances could be deceiving, but Caroline wouldn't have shown up if she were a ball of misery.

And as much as Bonnie wanted to touch base with Elena, she knew instinctively that Damon would be right there beside her and she was in particular mood to deal with him or his snark. Bonnie was exasperated by Elena's indecisiveness and knew her friend was going to have to make a choice and stick with it. Either she was going to be with Stefan—if he allowed that—or with Damon or with neither one. It was time to bring this long, drawn out, tired, played triangle to a close and roll the credits.

Bonnie's chauffeured ride pulled up and the valet opened the back passenger door, yet someone whistling caught her attention before she climbed into the vehicle.

It was Stefan who naturally eyed the vintage 1940's Rolls Royce with admiration prior to looking at Bonnie. "Nice ride."

"Compliments of Esther Mikaelson."

"Her way of saying thank you?"

Bonnie shrugged. "I suppose."

The two stared at one another before Stefan spoke again. "So you were just going to leave without saying good night? That's not the Bonnie I know."

"The Bonnie you know has recently gone through some alterations. She's not as sweet as she used to be."

Stefan cleared the space that separated them. "That's a shame because I like sweet Bonnie. Nevertheless, I'm more than ready to get acquainted with this new Bonnie. She seems like a fun gal."

"She is, and hungry. I get it they're rich, but the least they could have done was offered more than finger food at this shindig."

"Then let's go get something to eat," Stefan suggested. The both of them climbed into the back of the car and sped off into the night.

They were both dressed to the nines and being driven around in a classic car to boot. Instead of taking advantage of their situation by going to some insanely expensive restaurant and ordering everything off the menu, they opted to go to the one place that offered sugary fountain drinks, deep fried thinly sliced potatoes with grilled cowhide all smashed between a sesame seed bun and special sauce.

McDonald's—yes, they told the driver to take them to McDonald's.

Bonnie sipped on her coke and Hi-C mixed drink as she walked towards the door barefooted and jingling her keys in her hand. Stefan followed after her carrying their food and Bonnie's shoes. She opened the door, turned on the light, and stepped into the foyer.

Stefan pointedly cleared his throat. "Hello…you gotta invite me in."

Bonnie smacked her forehead. "Right, about that…"

"Un-hun, you want to eat?" he dangled the paper bag in front of her. "Then I need in."

Bonnie rolled her eyes and then broke her cardinal rule about no vampires in the house. It was a rule which could become null and void if said vampire was currently holding your quarter pounder with cheese and your stilettos hostage.

"Stefan, bring your paisley white ass on in."

He laughed ruefully and stepped over the threshold and entered Bonnie's sanctum.

They made themselves comfortable on the floor in front of the TV. Stefan had shed his jacket and the bowtie, and Bonnie merely covered herself with a towel because she didn't want to take her dress off yet.

Bonnie had devoured all of her French fries in less than five minutes and stared longingly at Stefan's. He picked one up, dabbed it in ketchup before holding it out to Bonnie who bit down on the ketchup covered end.

This was—nice Bonnie thought. It had been so long since she had a chill session with anyone. It was her official night off duty if you will, where she could just indulge in being young and in high school with no more worries than completing her homework. And it felt good to be around Stefan and away from the constant noise and drama that was associated with the Mikaelsons and even her friends.

The serenity of the moment, however, was shattered when both of their cell phones beeped. They had just received text messages.

Stefan cursed under his breath and reached for the device. He paraphrased, "It's Elena. Looks like my brother snapped Kol's neck. I guess we should have stayed around for the after party."

Bonnie could do nothing more than roll her eyes at the news, which was old to her by now.

"I'm over Damon's crap," Bonnie said and bit into her burger.

Stefan threw his phone on the couch and hoped it got lost between the cushions. "You and me both, tovarich."

Then, Bonnie's house phone rang. The two looked at one another already knowing who would be on the other end.

Bonnie hefted to her feet, walked the short distance to the kitchen and picked up the cordless.

"Hello?"

A hysterical Elena began ranting at the mouth about how she had to reject Damon for the millionth time and to show how much he hadn't evolved from his old ways, got into it with Kol and as a result broke the OV's neck.

Then the conversation shifted into Elena's constant disappointments and let downs by Stefan who just vanished without letting her know where he was headed off to.

Bonnie who had her back to the living room at this time kind of forget about Stefan's super hearing so she gasped a little when in the next second he was standing right behind her and plucked the phone out of her hand.

The young girl took that as her opportunity to vacate the kitchen and head upstairs and shed her gown. The magic that had surrounded the evening was quickly dissolving and Bonnie figured Stefan would be making his grand exit to go and talk to Elena very soon.

As much as she may have liked having Stefan's friendship Bonnie had to constantly remind herself that his life was still entwined with Elena's, and anything concerning her—Stefan made it his number one priority.

Did this bother her? Not in the past but now that things were shifting and she was learning to trust Stefan more and more, Bonnie felt an irrational sense of territorialism flash through her. Was it such a bad thing to want that kind of devotion for herself?

She didn't think so.

Bonnie reached behind her and lowered the zipper to her gown, stepped out of it, and reached for her robe. Too bad she didn't have the opportunity to put it on before Stefan was in her room.

Her heart got lodged in her throat and she forgot about the fact she was standing before him dressed in nothing but dark purple lingerie.

Stefan passed his eyes over Bonnie languorously and licked his lips involuntarily. Bonnie allowed him to get his look before she covered herself with her robe.

"You have to go," it wasn't a question.

"Actually I don't. Elena is going to have to learn to deal with her Damon problem on her own. I can't help her with that."

"Nor should you have to," Bonnie added quietly.

The tension began to suck all the oxygen out of the room. Bonnie shifted her weight on her feet and wondered if Stefan was going to make any kind of move.

He cleared his throat before speaking. "I'll be downstairs. We should watch a movie or something unless you're tired and you want to go to sleep."

"No, I'm not tired. We can do that. Go pick something out. The DVD's are in the top cabinets of the entertainment center."

Stefan said nothing else but headed to the door. He paused before exiting. When he faced Bonnie, the heat of his eyes scorched her.

"_You don't know how badly I want to kiss you right now, Bonnie…but I won't."_

That's what he wanted to say to her, but instead he went with, "I'm glad you invited me in."

The minute he left the room, Bonnie released the breath she had been holding, and on wobbly legs went to go have a seat on the edge of her bed.

She had heard his thoughts as plain as day, as if he had spoken the words aloud. Stefan wanted to _kiss_ her? He actually desired to taste her lips? And how badly did she want the same thing also?

Chapter end.

**A/N: Thursday night's episode left me feeling…like as a viewer and supporter of Bonnie Bennett that my wants, needs, desires for this awesome character are being blatantly ignored. That is the general consensus going around on Tumblr which I'm addicted to by the way. And I didn't know anything about the big reveal until afterwards and if I had known ahead of time I would have been feeling underwhelmed which I felt regardless. So pretty much Bonnie and her ancestors have been used like slaves since the inception of vampirism. You don't say? As if I couldn't already figure that out on my own. And the only reason Stefan is talking to her in the upcoming episode is to ask her or "tell" her to find someway to rescue Elena. Like seriously stick a tracking chip in that girl and be done with it. And only talk to Bonnie if you genuinely give a good hot damn about her well-being, not to use her skills to save arses and still walk away without the respect or being able to go home at night to cuddle with a hot ass boyfriend. Urg, stopping now. Thanks for reading**


	3. The Game Changer

**A/N: I'm so happy you guys really liked the last chapter. And I really hope you like this one. Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith and The CW. No copyright infringement is intended.

A week. That was possibly the longest he had gone without seeing Bonnie since he incorporated her on his diabolical plan to hide Klaus' family. And during that intermission Stefan tried to tell himself nothing was going on. Everything was fine. He was stressing over nothing. Things had calmed down considerably since the first family of vampirism had reunited and made their mark on the town. Perhaps since he lived on edge for so long, Stefan couldn't deal with the peace and quiet. Of riding through town and seeing families walking together, kids playing in the street or at the neighborhood park, of normal life happening all around him.

All of it was driving him up the freaking wall!

He couldn't stand the peace, the monotony of life. He didn't worry about Klaus standing over his bed with those blood red lips of his pulled into a shark-like smile holding a stake in his hand threatening to end him if he didn't cough up his family. Paranoia had been Stefan's best friend since he first left Mystic Falls. And it became his lover once he returned and started acting a fool.

Everything conceivable he didn't want to happen, _did _happen. Every line Stefan crossed mounted to be a line he crossed in vain.

Elena still managed to catch feelings for Damon, though he repeatedly told himself that was for the best. Klaus was still able to make his hybrids. The only weapon capable of killing Klaus was instead embedded in Mikael's chest. All of Stefan's foreseeable solutions to getting rid of the number one thorn in his side had failed and fallen through.

But that wasn't what had him staying up until the wee hours of the morning. And it certainly didn't have his cock jumping incessantly whenever he was alone for five minutes or longer.

"That damn Bonnie," he muttered and grabbed a pillow and smothered himself with it.

He had tried to casually ask Elena if Bonnie were all right without making it seem like he actually cared if she was all right or not. Elena had reassured him Bonnie was fine and was simply having that long talk with her mother that was interrupted when Abby kidnapped her.

Yeah, Stefan felt bad about not rushing off and going to find Bonnie himself. He should have been the one to go with her because if he hadn't asked Bonnie to find a way to hide the coffins and unlock the mystery box, then Bonnie wouldn't have dreamed about Abby being the one to open the coffin; though Bonnie speculated Klaus could have planted the dream in her head. More than likely he knew Abby was the witch responsible for entombing Mikael. Klaus had made it a habit to know everything about everything. So it really came as no surprise if Klaus knew all along Abby Bennett was the key to opening Esther's coffin.

Yep, they were pretty much used all around. Took it up the ass while laying down.

Since the night of the Mikaelson ball, and Stefan was finally permitted inside the Bennett home, after his phone call with Elena and he and Bonnie had that awkward moment in her room, Bonnie barely said two words to him for the rest of the night. She had occupied one end of the couch, he the other, and every time he tried to engage her in conversation, Bonnie would reply with one word responses.

He should have demanded she tell him what changed in those ten minutes he was on the phone with Elena. Maybe Bonnie thought he was going to go running back to his "mistress" since she snapped her fingers commanding his full attention. Yeah, he was done being Elena's cocker spaniel. That was Damon's job now and Stefan felt an immense sense of relief.

His phone buzzed and nearly fell off the edge of the end table but he caught it just in time. Stefan rolled his eyes before answering the phone.

"Yeah, Elena?" his tone dry and disinterested.

That didn't escape Elena. Not. One. Bit. Yet she chose to ignore it. "Hey, I was just calling to say I was on my way over there. Bonnie wants everyone to meet up because there have been some new developments."

Stefan sat up in bed and kicked the sheets away. Bonnie had called a meeting at _his _house and hadn't bothered to tell him about it? He was learning this information through Elena. Something was definitely not right.

"Is that so?" he questioned. "Did she happen to say what it was she wanted to discuss?"

"You know, Bonnie, she'll only tell you what you need to know."

_Apparently_, Stefan thought and then ended his call. He got out of bed, rushed to take the quickest shower ever, and spent a good twenty minutes standing in front of his closet trying to decide what to wear.

He was rolling up the sleeves to his navy blue Henley shirt—he ignored the little voice in his head that reminded him of the fact Bonnie said navy blue looked good on him—and was coming downstairs when the front door opened. It was Elena with Caroline in tow.

"Hey," Elena greeted as she waited for Stefan at the bottom of the steps.

He merely smiled at her, made a sharp turn to his right and proceeded into the living room. He missed the exchange that happened between Elena and Caroline. Instead he focused his attention on his older brother who was standing in front of the floor to ceiling window reading the newspaper.

Elena didn't cross over to Damon. She thought it best to keep the entire room between them considering what she said to him last week. Oh, and she also knew about his tryst with Rebekah. She certainly wasn't going to go out of her way to speak to him now.

Stefan sat back with a semi-amused expression on his face as he looked at the desperateness that washed over Elena's face. Clearly she wanted to say something, anything to Damon but was holding on to what dignity she had left by a thread. Caroline was too busy picking lint off her leggings to pay much attention to the tension that was cooking the room.

The front door opened again and in sailed Alaric looking no worst for wear. He had been released from the hospital after a two night stay. The man was in desperate need of a shave, and a haircut, but other than that he looked very grateful to still be alive.

Stefan hadn't realized he had been holding his breath, not until Bonnie came into full view. She walked confidentially into the living room with her grimoire tucked under her arm. And she also wasn't dressed in her usual uniform of jeans and a cute blouse or shirt, but was attired in a black T-shirt dress that hugged her curves, with a leopard print belt that cinched her waist, that she paired with a shockingly high pair of leopard print peep toe stilettos. Around her neck was an elaborate onyx and gold necklace that took him back to Elizabethan times.

Damon chose that moment to slap the paper down on the desk and looked around at everyone who had assembled.

"You got us here, Judgey, what's going on?"

Bonnie didn't even grace Damon with a complimentary eye roll. She simply placed the grimoire down on the coffee table and strolled up to Alaric. "Lots of things," she answered his question and then looked at Ric.

"How are you feeling?" she asked her history teacher.

Alaric cleared his throat before responding. "I've had better days…much better days." He brought his eyes over to Elena who quickly dropped hers to the floor. Although it had been his bright idea for Elena to kill him since she was supernatural and to prevent him from bleeding to death in the Gilbert hallway, Alaric had profusely tried to reassure Elena she did nothing wrong and that she hadn't turned into a serial killer overnight. But the guilt that riddled her eyes, stabbed Ric with that knife all over again. If there had been any way around it, he certainly wouldn't have put her in a position to end his life.

Bonnie nodded her head and then reached for his hand with the ring that was supposed to protect against supernatural attacks.

"Do you trust me, Ric? This thing has been put to the test in the last few months and I'm afraid that the next time something happens it just might be your last time. There's something I can do to improve your odds, but I'm going to need you to trust me."

He stared at the diminutive young woman in front of him and inclined his head. "You know I trust you, Bonnie."

"Good," she said and slipped his ring off.

A fire erupted in the fireplace that took everyone off guard. Elena and Caroline shamelessly jumped. Bonnie hadn't moved to stand in front of the fireplace or held out her hand as her way of channeling her power. She still remained in front of Alaric.

Stefan was impressed. Damon was too, but wouldn't say that out loud.

Bonnie took a step away from Ric, rolled the silver ring between her fingers before chucking it in the fireplace.

"Certifiable junk," she muttered and then approached Ric once more.

Sparks flew from the fireplace that captured everyone's attention, but Bonnie maintained hers on Alaric.

"Bonnie what's going on? What are you doing?" Elena queried, worry evident in her voice.

Bonnie didn't answer right away. Instead she placed both of her hands over Alaric's heart, slowly closed her eyes, and began chanting.

The fire snapped and popped fiercely and Damon wished he had a fire extinguisher handy. But the darkening sky outside caught his attention. The once beautiful, bright and sunny day transformed into that of a coming tornado. The wind howled furiously and rattled the windows.

Stefan, more alert than ever sat on the edge of the seat as he watched what was going on between Bonnie, and the way the fire was literally acting as if it were _on fire _and was trying to escape.

He turned his attention back to the two people in the center of the room. Ric began grunting and wincing while Bonnie maintained her chanting.

Elena was two seconds from protesting that Bonnie stop, when the fire extinguished suddenly, Bonnie stopped chanting, Ric fell down to the floor but his knee broke his fall, and the dark clouds outside dispersed and sunlight flooded into the living room again.

Bonnie pulled Ric to his feet. "How do you feel?"

He ran a hand over his chest. He felt like someone had jammed their arm up his ass and wiggled their fingers around—that's how he felt.

"I…whoa…I don't know," he responded and smirked sheepishly.

Bonnie grinned at him, walked over to the fireplace and extracted the ring. She tossed it at Ric, who caught it and slipped it back on.

"So…," Elena began, "did you respell his ring?"

"No," Bonnie answered plainly and then went to the Salvatore's secret stash of weapons Damon kept hidden in the bottom drawer of the desk. She extracted a crossbow and aimed it.

"Ric?" she said and pulled the trigger. The bow went whizzing through the air amid protests coming from everyone present.

"Bonnie, what the hell?"

"Are you crazy?"

"What the hell are you doing?"

All these questions were thrown like daggers at Bonnie, who simply kept her eyes on Ric and the fact he caught the arrow before it struck him in the chest.

It took a second for that to register with Ric that instead of seeing the arrow protruding from his chest, he actually held it in his closed fist.

The room went silent when this dawned on all those who were present.

"Just to make sure this isn't a fluke," Bonnie again, aimed and fired another arrow at Ric who easily caught it before it impaled his eye.

Jaws were on the floor, and mouths were catching flies.

Everyone kind of swiveled their head at Bonnie in astonishment. She turned her attention towards Damon.

"Try and snap his neck, Damon as you're so fond of doing."

"Now hold on a minute," Ric began to protest, but Damon who was up for anything challenging, super sped over to Ric intent to do just as Bonnie asked, but found a hand being clamped around his neck, and then he was propelled into the nearest wall.

Again everyone's jaw dropped and nothing but astonished silence could be heard all around.

"He moves as fast as a vampire," Caroline said somewhat dreamily. "What did you do to him?"

Bonnie sat the crossbow on the desk top and walked back to the center of the room. "I made him superhuman."

* * *

><p>For the next hour Ric tested the limits of his new abilities. He learned he could run just as fast but not entirely outrun a vampire. He could scale a building and trees without rope. And he could defend himself against three vampires simultaneously, and he was able to lift Stefan's Porsche five feet off the ground.<p>

Elena and Bonnie sat on the brick patio sipping glasses of lemonade as they watched Alaric's progress.

"How did you even learn how to make a human, superhuman?"

"I have my ancestors' talents and abilities flowing through me now. If I think it, I can do it. But I have to be extremely careful. Having this much power can be seductive and destructive."

Elena nodded her head in understanding. "So will he always need to wear the ring in order for his superhuman powers to work?"

Bonnie took a sip of her drink and shook her head. "I turned the ring into a honing device if you will so if something supernatural is around, he'll know. Ric has always been strong, but this just hasn't been his season. Having his neck snapped by Damon, being ran over, being stabbed…"

"Twice," Elena added a little sadly.

Bonnie stared at her lifelong friend a bit sympathetically. "He's still here, Elena. Focus on that."

"Now, you've made him invincible."

"He's not invincible," Bonnie contradicted. "Just a little harder to kill," she said with a tiny smile. "Has the sheriff being able to come up with any leads to who attack Ric, Caroline's dad, and the medical examiner?"

Elena shook her head. She mentioned it to Elijah and he said as a personal favor to her, he'd look into it.

Stefan had grown tired of having his ass handed to him by Ric's new skills and opted to take a break. He sauntered over to the girls and noticed that Bonnie tensed just a tad bit at his approach whereas Elena lit up like fireworks.

He snorted on the inside. He took a seat beside Bonnie. She didn't shift away but he did feel her tensing up. How odd considering she could make an entire army of superhumans yet she wanted to be skittish around him.

Stefan noted there were infinitesimal changes about Bonnie. Her hair appeared thicker, longer, wavier, and blacker. When she briefly flashed her orbs in his direction, he was a little shocked to see that around the irises—which used to be hazel they were now cerulean. He discreetly sampled the air; even her scent had changed. She smelled sweeter.

Elena watched them carefully. And Bonnie felt she had been put into a horrible threesome.

She hadn't spoken to Stefan since the night of the ball and she heard his thoughts as explicitly as if he said them aloud. He had wanted to kiss her that night, and though she was trying very hard not to pry into the inner sanctum of his mind, she easily picked up his frustration with her.

"So this is what you've been up to last week, tovarich?" he asked.

Bonnie forced herself to look at him and not get lost in his bluish-gray orbs. "It was part of what I was doing. I have to fill everyone in on the rest."

"There's more?" Elena asked.

Bonnie nodded her head and stood up. "Much more," she dropped her emerald eyes on Elena. "Could you get everyone to come back inside?"

Elena went to go round up the troops, and Stefan took that as his perfect opportunity to detain Bonnie. He caught her by the wrist and felt electricity flow from her skin and enter the pores of his own flesh. He instantly felt heavy in his pants.

Bonnie pivoted to face Stefan.

"Why do I get the sense you've been avoiding me?" he began. "Why didn't you call me and tell me about the meeting you wanted to have? Why did I have to hear about it from Elena?"

_Because you want to kiss me, _is what ran through Bonnie's mind. All week long she had pushed Stefan's—she couldn't call it a confession—but his unconscious yearning to the back of her mind. They had serious crap on their plates that they weren't aware of and delving into passions and lusts would be completely inappropriate at the moment.

If she told him that, she'd expose her other abilities, yet if she didn't say anything, he'd think she was giving him the cold shoulder because she felt like it.

"I have my reasons, Stefan, and I'll share them with you, but not now," Bonnie attempted to twist herself free which only prompted Stefan to tighten his hold.

His eyes bored into her. "You're different."

She gulped at that. He really had no idea.

Stefan ran his tongue over his bottom lip and Bonnie was sure he wasn't aware he just did that. Her heart began to pound in her chest. Why was it taking so long for everyone to assemble? They were only twenty feet away not a hundred.

"Stef…we should head inside."

"Not until you tell me what's different," _and why I just want to bend you over the nearest surface and have my wicked way with your…._

Caroline's giggles interrupted that particularly filthy train of thought.

Bonnie's eyes had widened a bit and color rushed up to her cheeks and the tips of her ears. She managed to break Stefan's confining hold and slipped inside the house.

She mouthed to herself, _Stefan is a freak…and if I didn't just get a tad bit excited. Concentrate Bonnie._

Once everyone was assembled back in the room, Bonnie strategically placed herself between her two best friends.

"I'll cut to the chase," Bonnie said without preamble. "Esther has been in contact with some witches from the other side who said that werewolves and vampires alike are coming here."

Everyone sat rimrod straight in his or her seat.

Bonnie continued to poor out the facts. "There are werewolves who want to be turned into hybrids because they believe it'll make them stronger, and give them superiority over all supernatural beings. And you have vampires and werewolves who do not want the bloodlines to mix. They've heard the rumors about Klaus and his ability to comingle the bloodlines. They also know about the doppelganger."

Elena threw a hand up in the air. "When does it ever end?" she lamented.

"Those vampires and werewolves are willing to work together to eliminate the source of making hybrids. They're gonna be gunning for Klaus and Elena. But Esther has arranged for me to meet with the leader of the hybrid opposition to focus the attack sorely on Klaus. The leader is a queen actually of her nest of vampires. The summit is to take place in London in two days."

Stefan shot out of the chair he was sitting on. "Wait a second. Esther is going to tell you to go and try to negotiate some type of deal with a-a queen of vampires? And you plan to travel to London alone? Have you lost your mind?"

"I'm sad to say it, witchy but I agree with my little brother. You'd be ripped to shreds in seconds. I mean, how is a little witch supposed to convince a so-called queen not to attack her best friend?"

Bonnie pursed her lips together and rose from her seat. "Because I won't be going to her as a 'little witch'," she spat contemptuously. "My ancestor Ayana…she was the spiritual leader of the tribe that was settled here _before _the Mikaelsons' arrived. They looked to her as their queen; they acknowledged her as their queen.

"Esther used Ayana's power and siphoned off power from my family for thousands of years and she gave back to me what she took from them. With that power came a title...I am Ayana's rightful heir so therefore…that makes me a queen."

Caroline, Alaric, and Elena all wore the same shocked expression on their faces. As for the Salvatore's…

Stefan could believe it. From the way Bonnie carried herself, to her grace, and her awesome leadership abilities, she had proven time after time again she'd do what was necessary to protect her home and the people she loved.

So that's what was so different about her. The power that flowed through her veins, the authority she had strapped to her back. She was standing in a room full of her subjects where her judgment was absolute. And come hell, high water, or no water, Bonnie was going to London to negotiate the terms of this pending war or stop it from happening period.

Well, Damon thought, his mouth suddenly feeling parched and thirsting for a drink, this certainly explained why Bonnie was so quick to judge and why she preferred things in shades of black and white. She was the living heir of the pseudo queen from the time the Mikaelson's originally walked the earth. Did he feel his respect for Bonnie rise, ten-fold it did, still he didn't like the fact that Bonnie could potentially order him around like a peasant.

Alaric felt it was his turn to interject his two cents. "Bonnie, you know I'm all for a person realizing his or her potential for knowing your family history, I'm a descendent of Alaric I of the Visigoths, so I get you on that part, but to go into this alone without adequate backup is dangerous and foolish."

Bonnie folded her arms over her chest. "Do you think I would have gone into this situation completely blind, Ric? I'm not a total idiot," she then faced Stefan. "I'm going to need official escorts. Esther suggested I take Kol and Elijah with me. Having two members of the original family would give more credibility to my title."

Stefan's face puckered. He was severely displeased.

"Oh yeah," said Damon. "And since when did you start living your life according to the Gospel of Esther? Didn't she pretty much screw you and Mommie Dearest over after you cracked open her coffin?"

Unfortunately he had a point, Bonnie conceded. "She and I have come to an agreement since then."

"And now she wants you to travel with her two sons—one who's known for screwing someone over—and the other is a freaking lunatic."

Bonnie titled her head to the side. "Hmm. Kol sounds exactly like someone I know," she then narrowed her eyes at Damon who blew her a kiss.

Stefan cleared his throat. "I don't trust either one of them with the keys to the outhouse."

Caroline snickered a tiny bit.

"And I certainly don't trust you to fly over an entire ocean with them either. I'm coming."

Bonnie couldn't argue with that and felt immensely better at least one person she knew would have her back regardless of what transpired.

"Damon I think you should go with them," Elena tentatively suggested. She noticed that several pairs of eyes stared at her drolly.

Damon looked highly offended she'd speak for him and suggest what he do with his time. Yeah, he was still smarting over her latest rejection and had worked out his frustration between Rebekah's thighs and mouth. Still, for Elena to presume it was all right for her to tell him what he should do with his time, unacceptable.

She didn't bristle under the hostile glare Damon sent her way. Elena merely squared her shoulders. Bonnie and Caroline looked at one another and shook their heads.

"And if I do go, who's going to protect you from making dumb ass decisions?" he threw at the brunette.

"She has Ric," Bonnie intercepted the question to breakup some of the tension that permeated the air. "And if he can't protect her with his new abilities…then he deserves his fate."

Elena gasped, "Bonnie."

Several pairs of eyes blinked disbelievingly at Bonnie.

Damon snorted. "When did you become so cutthroat, Bennett?"

"What can I say, I learned from the best. And Ric knows what I mean by that."

He did know. He was a history teacher after all and understood the parameters of war. That if you went in unprepared but above all, underestimating your opponent, if you died on the battlefield you had no one to blame but yourself. Ric could admit to being sloppy and a bit slow these past few months. Between the heavy drinking and mourning Jenna, his head hadn't exactly been in the game. But now, with Bonnie's help he felt sharper and more keenly aware of things that otherwise would have escaped his attention.

"She's right, guys," Ric backed up Bonnie's statement. "If I fail to keep Elena safe, then my head deserves to be mounted on a wall."

"Okay, can we change the conversation to something, I don't know, a little less gloomy perhaps," Caroline suggested.

And of course her suggestion was ignored.

Elena stepped up to Bonnie and searched her eyes. She didn't want to believe that this new power and her new title could have warped her best friend's outlook on life that she wouldn't cry a single tear if someone she cared about died uselessly.

"Bonnie this isn't you. You would never say that Ric deserves his fate…that he deserves death if he can't protect me. I don't want anyone to die for me."

"This isn't just about _you _Elena? Everyone in this town is at risk, hell the whole planet. We don't know how many vampires and werewolves are out there who are against you, and I for one am not trying to find out. And I don't know about you, but I have too many cute shoes in my closet and I don't want to ruin them by stepping in constant pools of blood."

Caroline elbowed Ric. "I raised her right," she said proudly.

"Things just got real," Bonnie went on to say, "and if you don't have the stomach for it, then you should hop on a plane and join Jeremy in Denver."

Elena gulped. Bonnie had been strict before but never to this extent and especially not towards her.

"I'm just scared for you, Bonnie," Elena whispered.

"And you don't have to be. I'm more powerful—yes, but that power isn't ruling me, and my love…has increased to bounds and lengths that I feel I can barely contain it. That's what fueling me, Elena, love not power."

Elena nodded her head and stepped away from Bonnie who then turned the brilliance of her eyes on Caroline.

"I need you to find Tyler, and convince him to come home. We don't need anything to happen to him. Take Matt with you."

"Okay," Caroline quickly agreed. She hadn't the slightest clue on where to start looking for him.

"Don't worry. I talked to Carol, we did a locator spell. He's somewhere in New Mexico."

The blonde was relieved by that breadcrumb that was dropped in her path.

Elena had a question. "Did you make Matt superhuman as well?"

Bonnie shook her head. "I asked him and he turned down the offer. But he did accept the ring that protects against supernatural attacks."

The rest of the afternoon was spent hammering out the logistics of the next few days. Elena had brought up the fact she assisted Esther with binding all of her children's lives together so that if something happened to one, it would happen to all. Elijah and Kol, naturally, couldn't find out about that in order for Bonnie's meeting with the vampire queen to go off without a hitch.

After everyone vacated to head over to the Grill to get something to eat, Bonnie stayed back for a minute to speak with Stefan privately.

She found him digging through his drawers. He was already packing his bags for their trip to London.

Stefan knew she was in his room. So many developments had taken place this afternoon that Stefan was still processing it all. Bonnie was a queen, and had a reserve of a thousand years worth of power in her thus making her the biggest walking threat on the planet. But she was still the selfless Bonnie he had come to know and expect, willing to do what was necessary despite the danger she placed herself in.

This wasn't exactly a trip he was looking forward to. Having to work with the Originals—again, having Elena in the crux of things—again. Oh, he could use a decade long vacation once this whole thing was over and done with for good.

However, what Stefan didn't want to admit is the fact he'd have to share Bonnie's attention between three other men.

Bonnie knocked on his door three times. Stefan stopped what he was doing and faced her. Her presence blew him away, she was so beautiful he could kick his own ass for not noticing until now.

"You're not happy about this," Bonnie said and pushed away from the door and entered his room.

Stefan shook his head. "Why should I be? You're heading into a nest of vampires with two Originals and two brothers who'd just as soon kill one another as your only source of backup."

"That's better than nothing, wouldn't you say?"

He shrugged.

Bonnie sighed heavily. "Stefan, I need my torvarich with me."

"And I'm coming with you," he refuted.

"No, Ripper Stefan is coming with me. And in this situation I don't need a ripper. I need someone with a brain on his shoulders," Bonnie pointed at her own temple to emphasize her point. "You've been moody all day."

He scoffed. "And you've avoided me all week."

"I told you what I was doing. I wasn't avoiding you."

His smirk was dangerous. "If that's the truth why is your heart racing calling you the liar that you are?"

And of course her heart beat would increase at him pointing out that incriminating factor.

Bonnie said through gritted teeth, "I am _not _lying."

He laughed humorlessly and closed the distance separating them. Stefan ran his eyes over Bonnie again, ingraining everything about her that changed, morphed into something so ridiculously beautiful it was almost painful to look at her. She was affecting everything about him, making him feel reckless, off balance, and out of control. He hated feeling like this and the persistent burn in the palm of his hands because that's how badly he wanted to touch her. And not to mention the raging hard-on that was pressing against his zipper.

Bonnie had to tell her lungs to inflate and deflate. Stefan was clouding her judgment with very little effort. She was so painfully aware of him that if she stepped just a hair closer she'd be reminded of how hard his body was, of how big and warm his hands were if he so much as cupped her cheek.

Minutes ticked off the clock.

Stefan dipped his head just a tad and Bonnie lifted her chin. There was still a good three inches of space separating their mouths.

"You're afraid of me, Bonnie."

She shook her head. "I've stopped being afraid of you, Stefan a long time ago," _but I am afraid of what you're thinking._

"You're right, you shouldn't be afraid of me, only what I'll do if someone hurts you."

His confession warmed all the dark, dormant places in her heart. Yet she didn't want to feel anything for anyone because the last time she risked her heart, it was promptly stomped on by a pair of Converse sneakers.

Stefan cupped her cheek. His eyes flicked from her eyes to her lips to her eyes again. Bonnie had prepared herself for this and waited. Stefan's head began to make its descent and then she felt his lips on her forehead.

"Meet me downstairs. I could go for some coffee."

Bonnie nodded and felt a great sense of…DISAPPOINTMENT! She turned around and along the way dropped her mental barriers to try to catch a stray thought, and what she sniffed out almost had her trip over her own two feet.

_I could really love that girl one day, but love stabbed me in the back so let's not go there—again. EVER!_

* * *

><p><strong>Mystic Grill<strong>

When Bonnie and Stefan arrived they spotted Damon and Alaric at their favorite perch—the bar. But Bonnie was glad rick was drinking what appeared to be a soda. Elena and Caroline were sitting at one of the circular tables with Matt.

"Am I getting your usual?" Stefan questioned.

"I'm feeling dangerous better do a double shot of expresso instead."

"I'll be right back," Stefan slinked away to put in their order.

Bonnie found a vacant table away from her core group of friends, pulled out her cell and logged into her Tumblr account. She wanted to see if any new posts on Dean Winchester had been uploaded since she checked this morning.

A sharp breeze of wind sped past her and ruffled the ends of Bonnie's mane. When she looked up she wasn't completely surprised to see Kol sitting across from her.

He had gotten another haircut since the last time she saw him. He was now rocking a faux-hawk and no it didn't take away from him sexiness. Kol's dark obsidian eyes danced at they stared unabashedly at Bonnie who slipped her phone back in her pocket.

"Can I help you with something?" she asked. "Staring is rude in case you forgot that."

Kol chuckled and made his hands into a steeple and placed them on top of the table. "Are you always so direct with your questions? If you're displeased with someone you certainly aren't shy about letting them know."

"How do you expect anything to change if you don't let people know what's bothering you?"

He smirked revealing those perfectly shaped teeth of his. "So I'm bothering you?"

Bonnie shrugged. "Depends on what you came over here for."

"Only to say I'm honored to be accompanying you on our pending trip to London. It's a shame Elijah has to tag along, the killjoy that he is."

Bonnie said nothing to this.

"And I'm also here to tell you my mother is requesting another audience with you before our trip. She feels a coronation is in order. After all, you are a queen now. It would only be fitting."

Bonnie snorted and her eyebrows almost lifted clean off her face. "A coronation? Don't you think that's a little overboard? I mean I'm a queen in theory. I can't really claim that because…this is America…we have a president."

Kol waved a dismissive hand in the air. "In our world, there are kingdoms all over this place. States and countries have been divided into territories where there is a ruling monarch. This is your territory, your kingdom, Bonnie and only you can claim it."

With those spoken words, Kol slid a rolled parchment over to Bonnie. "Be at that address at dawn, and yes your friends are more than welcomed to come."

Kol slid out of the chair, fell to his knee in front of Bonnie, took her left hand and kissed it. "I am your humble servant, majesty."

He winked at her and gracefully rose to his feet and strutted out of the restaurant causing several heads to swivel in his direction.

Bonnie unrolled the parchment and read over the words. This was just too unreal.

"What now?" Stefan asked.

Bonnie snapped her eyes up at him and noticed he looked perturbed as he held their drinks in his hand.

Bonnie waved the parchment in the air. "Care to escort a queen to her coronation?"

Chapter end.

**A/N: And who doesn't agree that Bonnie should be the queen of Mystic Falls? I've avoided calling her that because it sounds more like a pageant contest. Once I have her official title figured out, of course I'll let you guys know. I just had such a good time writing this chapter because I believe the writers refrain from having the other characters say to Elena what needs to be said so they don't crush her feelings, but I'm going balls out in this. Bonnie will give Elena a piece of her mind and no she won't automatically say she's sorry because that's what a true friend does, call you on your stuff and keep it moving. And the trip to London will be off the chain. But I hoped you guys liked it. Love you! R&R!**


	4. The Queen Has Spoken

**A/N: Hey ya'll. As you know I, like many were left feeling raw after the catastrophe that was 3x15, and my love for Bamon/Stefonnie vanished like Jimmy Hoffa. But after some soul searching, I decided to continue this story. I had to battle some writers block, but here's the final product. Hope you approve. Thanks for reading!**

Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith and The CW. No copyright infringement is intended.

**London, England United Kingdom**

He wasn't sure what to expect. From the moment they arrived in London, Bonnie was swept away by another entourage with promises that she'd be well looked after and taken care of. At first Stefan thought she was being kidnapped by the enemy camp, but Elijah—smug and self-knowing, shouldered past Stefan with one hand buried in his pant pocket and said Bonnie was in good hands. The people she just left with were loyal "subjects" of the Mikaelson family.

"You didn't think we'd just walk into a hostile environment without preparing for everything? Besides, she is a queen and has to make a queenly entrance, something we all will play an integral part in."

"But why weren't we told ahead of time?" Stefan bit out through clenched teeth. He had no problem with Bonnie being pampered if that's what was going on, but to have her bumrushed after leaving the airport with a half-ass explanation did _not_ sit well with him.

"My mother entrusted me that she be shown proper treatment for her elevated rank, Stefan," Elijah said in that cool British accent of his. "And that is the end of this tiresome discussion."

Damon at that time chose to step into the situation by getting in Elijah's way. "If you have anymore surprises lined up for Judgey, then you need to let us know now."

Elijah snickered and ran a manicured finger across his eyebrow. Stefan recognized Elijah typically did that just a second before he turned violent.

"I would appreciate it if you'd forgo calling Bonnie by any colorful nicknames that our host might find offensive. I didn't promise to protect you or your degenerate brother. You should remember that."

Damon smirked evilly. He loved pressing buttons, it was a favorite past time of his. "And I didn't make any promises not to stick a dagger in your chest. Oh, yeah, brought it with me and never leave home without it."

All emotion drained from Elijah's face. Kol at that moment chose to stand behind his brother as he glared at Damon.

Stefan closed his eyes and shook his head. They really didn't need to stand on the sidewalk having this pissing contest. What they should be doing was heading over to the hotel and doing a security sweep. They were, for all intents and purposes, in enemy territory where scouts could be all over the place looking for the perfect time to kidnap Bonnie.

"All right, boys, simmer down. We have a job to do," Stefan said taking the stand as the voice of reason. He was all for duking it out but right now they needed to be on their best behavior and acting like a cohesive unit.

Damon and Elijah eyed one another disdainfully and finally stepped away and got into the idling SUV. Kol spared Stefan the briefest of looks which Stefan couldn't really decipher. Once he slid into the truck, he pulled out his cell phone and sent a text to Bonnie checking up on her status.

She instantly replied back that she was at a dance studio. His right eyebrow shot into the air and he inquired what did she mean she was at a dance studio. Minutes ticked by with no answer. So that prompted Stefan to ask Elijah what was going on.

"Bonnie just texted me that she's at a dance studio. Why is she at a dance studio?"

"The queen we have an audience with is very old-fashioned and she likes to be entertained. I thought it would be appropriate to introduce Bonnie through an elaborate dance."

Again this was something that wasn't discussed or purposely left out that Stefan didn't approve of.

"Why can't she just walk into a room and say 'What it do? I'm Bonnie'?" Damon asked and snickered.

Stefan chortled. Leave it to his brother to ask what was running through his mind, but form the question in a totally inappropriate manner.

Elijah made some guttural noise in the back of his throat. "Have you no formal home training, Damon? I'm almost convinced you were raised by wolves. Look, I'd be happy to break down the intricacies of courtly etiquette but there's simply no time. Bonnie will be performing…as will the rest of us…like I said we all have a part to play."

Hours later, dressed in a fashionably tailored suit, Stefan waited by the bank of elevators for Bonnie to descend and show herself. He hadn't seen her since they were seated next to each other on the plane, and had only been able to communicate with her through text messages. He was feeling anxious and antsy again, and constantly rubbed the back of his neck.

Kol and Damon merely held up opposite walls and glared at one another. Elijah for his part stared out the large glass windows- people watching.

The bing of the elevator caught all the immortals attention and out strolled Bonnie. Her eye makeup was elaborate with an Egyptian influence. Her hair was parted down the center with deep long waves. But he couldn't see what she wearing because the black pea coat covered up what he suspected was a mini-dress of some sort that she paired with Christian Loubontin ankle boots.

"Ready?" Elijah asked, his eyes weren't shy about looking her over with approval.

Bonnie curtly nodded her head and looked at Stefan. She smiled only a little and before he could even take a step in her direction, Kol was already at her side, taking her very lightly by the hand.

"You don't mind if I escort you to the car, do you?"

"_I _mind," Elijah intervened.

_Here we go again_, Stefan thought and licked his lips.

Kol sized his brother up and was two seconds from dismissing him.

"Guys, please, not now. Kol…according to Elijah no one is allowed to hold my hand or arm. You all have to…walk behind me by three paces."

Damon gawked. "You're taking this queen business a little too seriously."

Four pairs of eyes glowered at him.

"She's a queen, Damon and protocol states that no one can walk beside her unless invited, and we all have to maintain a space of three paces and line up according to importance," Elijah couldn't hide his smirk if his life depended on it. "And because Kol and myself are the predecessors of our kind, we line up directly behind Bonnie while you and your brother…"

"Tail behind like dogs, which I think is fitting," Kol interjected.

Damon had several points to argue to this. If anything they should be lined up according to who's important to Bonnie. As far as he was concerned he and Stefan had seniority so they should be the one's walking behind her.

"We're wasting time," Bonnie said and began heading towards the entrance of the hotel. She didn't care who lined up where and who walked next to her. She was trying to keep her nerves in check. In any case, they all piled into the car. Stefan slid in sitting beside Bonnie.

That would turn out to be a mistake.

It was bad enough she used his shoulder for a pillow for most of their flight from Virginia to London offering him the chance to peek down her V neck sweater, now she was forcing everyone to listen to "No Bullshit" by Chris Brown as they were being chauffeured to the summit.

Stefan kept his gaze locked outside the tinted window staring at the buildings, the people milling about on the street, every and anything so he wouldn't focus on the explicit lyrics of the song, or the fact he'd very much would like to make Bonnie cum over and over again.

A growl slipped out when one of the back tires of the SUV ran over a pothole causing Bonnie's boob to brush up against his arm. She was seated between him and Kol in the back. Stefan closed his eyes briefly wishing he didn't feel certain things for Bonnie. How he yearned to go back to the days where he only viewed her as Elena's friend and _only _wanted to be Bonnie's friend. And then for a while he didn't care if he had friends or not. Surviving was all that mattered.

Little by little the green-eyed beauty beside him was making Stefan remember the things he missed. He missed having someone to talk to late at night on the phone, or to randomly text throughout the day, or merely being able to wrap his arms around a nice, warm, pliant body at night. There had been few distractions in his long life that could take his mind off the fact he was so damned unhappy. Lexi had done her best to bring back his humanity, to make him a member of an already existing community. Elena hammered in Lexi's hard work and Stefan found himself taking her friends and family under his wing and protection.

But those days were long gone. He wasn't that Stefan anymore, self-sacrificing, a complete and total fool for love. That Stefan needed to die.

Who was he now? He really had no clue. Here was his conundrum; he was vampire and man, both at once and neither one. Stefan wasn't fully vampire nor was he fully human, he was his own sort of twisted hybrid and it was screwing with his brain something fierce.

Bonnie for her part had remained completely ignorant of the constant, daily battle he had to fight whenever they were alone or smashed together in close quarters. Her skin literally called out to him to touch, kiss, fondle, do everything that popped into his mind to do. Yet he couldn't partake in any of it because if he allowed himself to really care for her, he'd open up Pandora's Box and that really wasn't an option.

Not now.

Not when this complicated hybrid situation changed shape yet again.

Werewolves and vampires were consolidating their efforts and resources to take out Klaus and Elena. It went without saying Stefan didn't give a crap about what happened to Klaus, but Elena…he only wanted to keep her alive because she had people who cared about her and he wanted to spare them that pain.

Everyone else figured he was tagging along as his last ditch effort to prove to Elena that he wasn't a lost cause, that he still loved her. Sure, he loved her. Something like that didn't simply fade overnight, but it wasn't the passionate love he used to have for her. That had evaporated due to lack of use, plus he was just pain tired of their song and dance.

Bonnie yawned, arched her back against the seat, and nibbled on a corner of her mouth. She flipped through a glossy magazine not really reading the damn thing, just looking at the pictures of the fashion models. If she was nervous Stefan really couldn't tell. Her hands weren't shaking, and she was singing along to the music blasting from the speakers.

Stefan quickly looked at the other males present in the truck.

Elijah sat stone faced yet constantly rubbed his middle and thumb fingers back and forth across one another. His foot tapped very lightly against the carpeted floor, keeping beat with the music.

To be a psychic to know what was going through his mind. Stefan figured he had been on the longest sex drought, but Elijah was probably the winner of that contest.

He then directed his attention to Kol. From Stefan's perspective it seemed he was keeping his eyes on the back of Damon's head. Yeah, that had been another situation that had to be diffused ASAP before anyone stepped foot outside of Mystic Falls.

Kol was _pissed_ when it was announced that he and Damon would be going with him, Elijah, and Bonnie to London. Stefan almost wanted to laugh out loud at the original's shocked face. Damon may have been just a tinsy bit worried Kol would try to rip his heart out of his chest. He did snap his neck on the night of the ball. Just saying, vampires were notorious for holding onto grudges and seeking revenge.

But Bonnie stepped in with her authority and told them that if they tried anything, she'd personally stick her size six and a half foot up someone's ass.

The queen had spoken.

Queen, Stefan was still wrapping his head around that. Bonnie was a queen. Queen Bonnie the First of…Mystic Falls. Bonnie had been adamant that no one call her by any official title. She was simply Bonnie Bennett, daughter of Thomas and Abby Bennett, granddaughter of Sheila Bennett, and great-great-great granddaughter of Emily Bennett.

That's all she wanted to be acknowledged as.

Her coronation ceremony had been brief and beautiful, and took place in a secluded and cleared out part of the woods. Bonnie had pulled out her dress, the one she wore to the ball, but this time she paired it with rhinestone encrusted shoes, a diamond wreath necklace, and wore her hair swept up from her neck.

Esther had made some long-winded speech about accepting responsibility and promising to adhere and keep the laws of nature, and blah, blah, blah. All of it kind of reminded Stefan of a wedding except there was no groom, but he figured Bonnie was marrying herself to the land. She drank some kind of wine concoction, signed a contract, and then a very small coronet was placed on her head.

It was done. She was officially a reigning monarch. Two hours later she and her entourage had boarded a flight headed for London.

So far everyone had gotten along and kept conversations to a minimum.

The music changed and now they were now being serenaded by a classical selection from Vivaldi. Maybe her schizophrenic tastes in music were the only clear indication of her rising nerves, but Stefan heard a sigh of pleasure escape Elijah. Kol remained impassive and Stefan was pretty sure Damon rolled his eyes and quirked his lips in a sneer.

Twenty minutes into the drive, they arrived at yet another hotel—this one fancier than the one where they were lodging.

When Stefan stepped out of the SUV, he could see nothing but Aston Martin's, Rolls Royce's, and Lamborghinis are far as the eye could see. He reached for Bonnie's hand, breaking protocol, he didn't care and helped her out of the truck and onto the cobble pathway.

The procession of hot males followed after Bonnie and she was once again intercepted. Elijah merely inclined his head as a signal this was part of the program, and to leave your grievance at the door. He motioned with two fingers that all the men follow him. Stefan turned at the last second before Bonnie disappeared behind a pair of doors, their eyes meeting. He offered a smile, Bonnie winked and that would be the last time he'd see her as simply being Bonnie Bennett—teenaged witch.

Stefan stood in the center of the grand room, three feet behind Kol and listened as Elijah made the proper introduction since he voted himself spokesperson. That was fine. The less talking he had to do, the more acutely aware he could be of everything around him.

So far the room was set up in the English traditional style. Three long tables were aligned in a boxed shaped U filled with a mixture of vampires and werewolves alike. The Queen, a beautiful mahogany hued woman with electric green eyes, and long black hair sat adorned under a canopy of cloth-of-gold. When he had entered the room, he gave a customary bow and walked to the center of it and bowed again. The Queen infinitesimally nodded her approval and listened intently as Elijah sang her praises and thanked her for granting them permission to stand before her. Inwardly Stefan rolled his eyes at all the ass-kissing but knew it was a necessary evil.

And for as beautiful as the foreign queen was, Stefan knew that under those eyes and those killer good looks laid the heart of a truly ruthless being that was used to getting her way. They would all have to tread very lightly.

Now, he waited for Bonnie to arrive.

He, Elijah, Kol, and Damon had a brief meeting where Elijah filled them in on what was going to happen. Stefan hated dancing. He was a touch above rhythmless whereas his brother was just a plain hot mess. To remedy this Elijah presented them with a potion Bonnie had spelled that would magically give them rhythm. This would be interesting to watch.

"I now present to you, my sovereign, Her Lady Priestess, Queen of Commonwealth of Virginia, Bonnie Bennett," Elijah finished saying.

Four draped liters with half naked gladiator type men entered the room. A liter was sat down next to each of the four men. Stefan wasn't sure which one Bonnie was in. But he reached blindly for the hand that slowly emerged from the liter and he pulled the woman out.

To his disappointment it wasn't Bonnie. But he spotted her out of the corner of his eye. She had been paired up with Damon.

Stefan remained still like a statute as the woman executed some type of spin to stand in front of him, her back facing his front. She along with Bonnie was dressed in something that reminded him of a belly dancers costume which left their arms and torsos exposed.

As the music began to descend in the room, the woman reached backwards and planted her hand on his chest as she fell down to rest on her haunches.

Again, Stefan's eyes traversed over to Damon and his eye twitched a little as he saw Bonnie doing the exact same thing to his brother that the woman had done to him. She, his dance partner spun around and was facing his crotch. Stefan kept his head facing the front and reached for the woman to pull her up to her feet.

They began their elaborate cadence and during this everyone switched partners at least once. Yet Stefan was always consciously aware of Bonnie.

With Damon she danced with the familiarity they were used to dealing with each other. His brother held her a little tighter than he did his other partners and touched her in places the dance really didn't call for. When Bonnie danced with Elijah he held her almost reverently. With Kol, they were more playful with one another. He'd wink at her and Bonnie would half-smirk.

When it was his turn to dance with Bonnie before they departed to do a traditional waltz, she braced her hands on his shoulders, as he picked up her left leg in a lunge. Bonnie surprisingly licked him from the bottom of his chin, over his lips, and flicked the tip of his nose.

Stefan almost dropped her and wondered if that was improvised or if it were apart of the dance. He was too shocked to look around for confirmation that all the other dancers were instructed to pull the same move. And hey, he wasn't going to complain.

Much to his chagrin Bonnie was taken away from him by an overeager Damon who she finished the dance with.

Once they were back in the positions they began with, the audience clapped and cheered. The dancers, Bonnie included all fell to bended knee, but then Bonnie rose, and when she did her clothes magically began to transform until she stood in a beautifully beaded black gown that swept the floor with a mermaid train.

A gasp fell over the crowd and the claps turned into a thunderous roar.

Try as he might to take his eyes off Bonnie to ascertain if that move impressed the Queen, Stefan didn't have the willpower to do so.

Elijah moved next to Bonnie, bowed before her and took her very gently by the fingers leading her to stand five feet from the high table.

"Queen Aaliyah, I present to you again, my sovereign Queen Bonnie."

Queen Aaliyah rose from her chair and everyone else rose from their seats as well. She grabbed her flute of champagne and held it out in honor of Bonnie.

"From one sovereign to another I welcome you to my realm, Majesty."

"And from one sovereign to another, I am pleased to be in your company, Your Grace."

Queen Aaliyah smiled in approval and retook her seat. Everyone else did the same.

Once the queen was seated again, with the flick of her hand she dismissed the dancers, minus Bonnie's party out of the room.

"All of your reputations precede you," she looked at Elijah. "Elijah—the intuitive yet cold and calculating mercenary. Kol, his younger psychotic brother. Damon, the whoremongering self-destructive immortal. Stefan, the walking Shakespearian tragedy who moonlights as a ripper. And you, the newly appointed queen of a land that is very young indeed. And you are here to negotiate a treaty. To what end?"

Bonnie licked her lips and maintained eye contact with the Queen. She really was a beautiful woman and probably the first black vampire she had ever met. Her beauty was shocking as well as the fact that whenever she smiled, Bonnie could see her fangs. Perhaps because she was so old—rumored to be even older than the original family—was the reason for it.

Bonnie had learned several things about vampires—that like in the animal kingdom there were different species. Queen Aaliyah was part of a branch of vampirism where you are born vampire. How that was even possible, Bonnie had no clue. But Queen Aaliyah was from the land formally known as Ur, but as of late considered Egypt her true home.

"Your Grace, I'm here to say that I agree with the message that the hybrid has to be destroyed and the balance must be protected, however, there is a part of the plan that is unsettling to me. It's the part that involves the wholesale killing of the doppelganger."

Queen Aaliyah, who had been lounging against her throne sat up rod straight. "So the rumors are true? The doppelganger exists?"

"She does."

"And she is under my sovereign's protection," Elijah interrupted.

Queen Aaliyah snapped her head like a cobra ready to strike at Elijah. "And why should we spare the key ingredient in making those abominations? If it were not for her blood, then this summit would not be commencing as we speak."

"She is an innocent bystander in all of this, my Queen," Bonnie went on to say. "She didn't ask to become the key to making vampire/werewolf hybrids. If you lead this war, her life isn't the only life that would be placed in danger. You should know how a land reacts when it is filled with nothing but blood."

The Queen allowed Bonnie's words to sink for a minute. However, there was something else about this motley group that drew her curiosity.

"I'm surprised that for being a witch that everyone in your employ is a vampire. Your kind is no friend to mine."

"Yes, that's true," Bonnie agreed. "Witches and vampires don't have a good history. Even you can say the same. You're breaking bread with werewolves." A low murmur rumbled through the hall. Bonnie continued. "But in this we're united that the true target of this impending war should be the one who can initiate the vampiric/lycanthropic transformation, and that's Niklaus."

"Those two…" someone in the Queen's camp pointed his finger at Elijah and Kol. "They are his brothers. Are you not?"

Elijah replied, "I assure you that I've been searching for centuries for a way to kill my brother. For reasons I'll only elaborate if you feel its necessary, but Niklaus has proved he is no respecter of persons. He won't hesitate to kill you family or perfect stranger—makes no difference with him. "

The Queen eyed Elijah before she rose from her seat again. She walked down the dais and approached Bonnie who was a little surprised they were almost exactly the same height.

Stefan noticed that Queen Aaliyah's eye flicked over to Damon before she brought her attention back to Bonnie. She took her hand and led her to the high table.

"Sit with me."

And with that dinner had commenced.

The guys were also allowed to sit but they were purposely assigned to places that were far from the two queens.

Stefan listened intently to every word that was spoken between the monarchs and he especially paid attention to the rate of Bonnie's heart beat. Since he couldn't really see her from where he was seated at the end of the head table, he only sipped the alcohol that was continuously poured into his goblet.

At sometime during the night, the Queen turned to Bonnie and said, "I will consider a negotiation of terms that would exclude the doppelganger. Only if you permit your servant Damon to attend me."

Stefan nearly swallowed his champagne down the wrong pipe.

Bonnie agreed only after a moment of hesitation. Apparently she didn't know what that meant.

A messenger was sent down to his end of the table and Stefan listened to the whispered conversation between his brother and the page boy. Damon rose from his seat, buttoned his suit jacket and followed the messenger.

The Queen and Damon spoke for only a few seconds prior to her rising from her seat. "I will adjourn to my chambers. We will resume this conversation at my earliest convenience. And there will be no fighting in my absence."

To Bonnie, the queens exchanged words and double kisses on the cheek, and just like that his brother was gone.

Bonnie remained in her seat for a moment before she rose. Stefan followed suit, along with Elijah and Kol. They followed her out into atrium of the hotel where Bonnie exploded.

"She chose Damon! Damon to negotiate the terms of this pact or tract or treaty or whatever the hell it is we're supposed to be doing? Damon cannot keep his mouth shut and he's liable to get us all killed right here in London."

Stefan reached for Bonnie to get her to stop pacing. "Bonnie, calm down. Damon…might not have the most sensitive mouth, but when it comes to Elena he can be tactful. He won't say something too offensive or outlandish that will warrant all of our deaths."

"He better not," Kol growled and ran a hand over his face. "I need a real meal and drink, preferably in that order. What do you say, Elijah?" he clapped his brother hard on the shoulder. "Care to paint the town red with me for old times sake?"

"As much as I'd love to, I think it best if I remain here. If Damon does say something untoward I might be able to intervene."

Not long Damon came strolling out of the elevator. There was no distinguishable expression on his face.

Bonnie met him half-way. "That was quick. So did you do it? Were you able to convince the Queen to stand down her efforts, and only concentrate on going after Klaus?"

"About that," he began elusively. "We haven't exactly hammered out those terms," he laughed briefly. "She said she's willing to drop Elena from her kill list if I do one thing for her."

"That is?" Bonnie asked impatiently.

"If…I pretty much…bang her brains out."

Bonnie wiggled her ear. She thought she lost her hearing for a second. "Okay, what?"

"Yes, I know you're still a virgin and all, Bons, but even you know what the expression bang someone's brains out means."

In any other situation Bonnie would have blushed at having her virginity put on blast like that, but this wasn't the time nor place. Instead she just realized that Damon, who was something of a gigolo, would literally have to pimp himself out to a queen to get her to not kill the woman he loved.

Something rumbled in her belly and before she knew it, she was laughing and snorting like a pig.

Elijah looked disgusted and walked away. Kol appeared bemused by the whole turn of events whereas Stefan merely pressed his lips into a hard line. Why did everything always have to boil down to his brother's package?

"Are you done?" Damon snapped.

Bonnie tried her best to sober up but when she looked at him her chuckles began all over. "I'm sorry," she choked out and wiped a corner of her eye. "How ironic that the life of the woman you love depends on how good you can screw another. I hate to be in your shoes, Damon."

"Yeah, I can't exactly agree to her arrangement, Bonnie," he said contemptuously.

"What do you mean? Are you already having performance anxiety?"

He glared at her. "No. Queen Aaliyah needs your permission to…have me. She's all about not stepping on toes here since I'm in your camp. She believes you have a sexual relationship with all of us, your presumed favorites."

At that Bonnie's eyes ballooned and all humor fled her body. Her jaw dropped. "Wait, she thinks that I'm sleeping with all of you?"

Damon merely nodded his head slowly.

"This is so twisted," Bonnie said emotionlessly.

"You have no idea," Damon agreed.

"It can't be this simple," said Elijah. "She's willing to leave Elena out of the attack on my brother so long as you please her…sexually?"

Damon shrugged. "It seems like a simple enough request. I mean she's willing to work out a contract, you know for official reasons, as long as I get her off."

Elijah scoffed at his crassness.

Damon turned back to face Bonnie. "So do I have your permission to have some fun or not?"

"I really don't care what you have to do. I mean…I guess I could ask you how you feel…being used like this."

Damon shrugged. "It beats torture any day."

"Are you sure?"

"Look, Ju…sovereign," Damon corrected when he got that annoyed look from Elijah. "She's not bad on the eyes and from our brief encounter it's plain to see its been a while for her," he shrugged. "I am the best there is at what I do."

"Please don't steal Wolverine's lines, Damon." Pause. "All right, if you're comfortable and won't feel objectified…then yes, Damon you have my permission to…lie with the Queen," a snicker escaped.

"Great," Damon said with false cheer and walked away. Stefan felt compelled to go after his brother and caught him before he hopped back on the elevator to have a few brotherly words together.

Bonnie watched in amazement as they shook hands. Bonnie wholeheartedly expected Stefan to produce a box of condoms and a cigar.

Stefan approached the group again yet kept his eyes on Bonnie.

"So what are we supposed to do while they have…intense negotiations?" she asked.

Stefan shrugged. "Whatever we want I suppose."

"I'd like to go to bed and forget that the last ten minutes just happened."

And she wouldn't be the only one.

* * *

><p><strong>Three days later…<strong>

That's how long these special "negotiations" lasted and during that time the others took advantage of being left to their own devices. They became like tourists going to all the major notable places in London, from Buckingham Palace, to the Tower of London, to Big Ben. Bonnie had absorbed everything like a child. For the originals they took everything in, in a subdued manner because they had seen it before although for Kol he was a little more enthused simply because he had been daggered and trapped in a box for a hundred or more years.

Stefan wasn't really interested in the sights around him but merely keeping watch of Bonnie who as each hour passed grew more and more relaxed around the two original brothers whose death she was going to bring about if Esther's plan—whatever that might be—was carried out.

This whole plan seemed over simplified and Stefan couldn't escape feeling as if they were being ensnared in an elaborate trap. Wouldn't be the first nor last time that happened. But he didn't want to bring those fears and speculations to Bonnie because for the first time in so long she was simply enjoying life.

But touring London was how they spent their days, and at night they ventured into clubs. Bonnie danced to the techno music that was prevalent. Stefan really couldn't stand it so he'd stand on the sidelines keeping his attention on Bonnie, looking for danger.

Of course no one could really tell he was pining. Often he'd replay those few moments they danced together on their introductory night and she boldly licked his lips. He didn't have the opportunity to question her about it because her time was inexorably monopolized by either Elijah or Kol.

However, when they all went back to their hotels after a day of sightseeing and a night of partying, Stefan would accompany Bonnie to her room. There she'd let her guard down, show that as cool and composed as she let on, she was worried about Damon since they had no way to communicate with him, but they convinced themselves that each hour that passed and his corpse wasn't dumped outside the hotel meant he was still alive.

But during those moments she'd let her vulnerability show, that's when Stefan felt the closest to her. They hadn't reached a point where he could openly hold her and whisper that everything would be all right. She would allow him to help her undress. He'd unzip her dress or remove her jewelry but that was it.

Yet as the hours passed and they were left in a displaced limbo, and all he could focus on was how alone he felt regardless of being surrounded by people. Bonnie was too busy with her new "friends" and his brother was sexing his way into history. That left him with far too much time on his hands to think, and his thoughts weren't good.

And the fact he hadn't had a sip of human blood in weeks wasn't helping either.

On the third day Damon finally showed his face which was in the form of a grimace. He entered Bonnie's suite, favoring the left side of his body as he limped his way to the dining area where she and Stefan were eating breakfast.

"What's wrong?" Bonnie asked.

Damon slowly eased his way into the chair and hissed. "I can't feel my dick," he said through clenched teeth. "I never want to have sex another day in my life."

Bonnie and Stefan attempted to keep a straight face and barely made it.

"So tell us, brother, what happened during your conjugal visit."

Damon, after consuming half a bottle of vodka spilled out what happened. Queen Aaliyah after being thoroughly pleasured agreed that the force of the impending attack would be diverted to Klaus instead and that she was willing to sign a blood contract agreeing that no one in her camp would go after Elena. If someone dissented, the treaty would be null void and it would be within Bonnie's right to end them all.

"Whoa," Bonnie said.

"Whoa indeed. You sign the contract tonight so try to look nice," Damon winced and then hobbled his way out of her suite.

So that found Stefan once again attired in a suit, as he stood on the sidelines taking everything in. Bonnie who was beautiful in a diaphanous amethyst gown, signed the contract and spoke with the Queen dispensing how appreciative they were that they were able to find an alternative that would not involve the death of her best friend.

"Are you certain there is nothing between you and Damon?" Queen Aaliyah asked, those uncanny ice-green eyes of her boring into Bonnie.

"I promise you, he and I…we were barely friends months ago, and now…I find his service tolerable at best."

"The only reason I'm persistent with this thought is the way he spoke of you. I'm sure most of it was exaggerated flattery on his end, but I've always had a specially built intuition when it comes to sincerity and he sincerely respects you as his queen. That kind of devotion only stems from a deeply intimate relationship."

Bonnie cleared her throat feeling several degrees of uncomfortable. More than likely Damon was thinking of Elena when he was with the queen supposedly singing her praises. That was the only explanation she could think of.

"Are you sure we're talking about the same person?" Bonnie asked cheekily.

"I know of what I speak. But then…they all are sweet on you, but the Salvatore boys in particular. Damon was an absolute joy."

Bonnie refrained from commenting. And of course he would approach, kiss Queen Aaliyah very deeply on the cheek before reaching for Bonnie's hand to spin her around the dance floor.

"So according to Queen Aaliyah, you have a thing for me," she teased.

Damon spun her out and when they stood chest to chest, he rolled his eyes. "Please, I would have proposed marriage to you if that's what it would take to get her to agree not to attack Elena."

"Such a martyr you are."

"I know, I think I would have outshined St. Stefan that's for sure."

Stefan watched his brother dance with Bonnie, listened to their conversation. A very noticeable tick went off in his jaw. He'd had and heard enough.

Upon hearing his name Bonnie immediately began to search the crowd for Stefan. She didn't spot him anywhere.

Bonnie stopped dancing and began to search the crowd for him.

"He went back to the hotel," Kol said after materializing behind Bonnie.

"And he didn't say anything to anyone?"

"No. He's been looking sad all night."

"I have to talk to him," Bonnie announced.

"I'll go with you."

"No, stay and enjoy yourself."

Bonnie hailed a cab. She didn't have the patience to wait for her driver. In minutes she arrived at the hotel and went directly to Stefan's room.

He answered the door and Bonnie noticed he lost his tie and dinner jacket and that his button down was open revealing his perfect pectorals and abs. And he didn't make a single move to button it up.

Stefan stepped aside and allowed Bonnie entry. She felt the air around them turned into charged tension.

She also spotted that he appeared to be packing. Had he planned to leave tonight without telling her?

"You're packing?" she said and pivoted on her heels to face him.

Stefan nodded his head. There was such sadness and resignation in his eyes and she wondered why that was.

"Stefan what's up? You've been in this…mood the whole trip."

"I'm sorry but I thought you made it clear you didn't want ripper Stefan around. This was about business and that business has been achieved so there's no point in me pretending that all is well with the world, when that's far from the truth."

"Okay, so tell me what's going on. We have the queen's word that Elena is safe from attack. I mean…that's a reason to celebrate…"

"I'm not in the mood, Bonnie."

She moved closer to him. His voice had taken on a gravelly quality something that only happened when he was trying his best to conceal his emotions.

She gripped him by the sides of his face. "Stefan, I'm asking you what's wrong. You just bailed and didn't say anything to me. That's not like you."

The flatness she recognized in his eyes terrified Bonnie. She felt like he was slipping back into his doom and gloom ways.

She gripped his face tighter. "Stefan, look at me. Something is bothering you. What is it?"

"That's the thing, Bonnie. If I allow myself to care, all I'll feel is pain."

That drew her up short. Stefan forced her hands off his face and put the entire room between them.

"Stefan," she began quietly.

He held up a hand, his back to her. "It's all right. I have a part to play and I'm going to play it till the end."

"You don't have to play at anything, least of all with me."

"You know I'm just a means to an end, Bonnie."

"Why are you acting like no cares about you, Stefan?" she felt her anger rushing forth.

"Because nobody does!" he raised his voice and turned to face her.

"That's not true and you know it." Bonnie stomped up to him. "The last eight months have been hell for you, I get that. But after everything that's happened, everything you lost and gained, there was one thing that remained constant, and you want to know what that is…love, Stefan. People love you."

He scoffed.

"Damon loves you. Elena still loves you. Caroline is included on that list; and Alaric in his own way, and…" Bonnie licked her lips nervously, "I love you, Stefan."

His jaw went a little slack at the admission. He could hear Bonnie's heart pounding in his ears and it was the sweetest sound ever.

He lifted a hand and lightly cupped her cheek. "Bonnie…you can't love me."

She gulped nervously. "I choose to."

The bottom of both their eyes were about to be flooded with unshed tears.

For the last four days he's had to watch Bonnie dote attention on others and observed others dote on her. Which all of it was deserved. But for someone so selfless and pure, Bonnie didn't need his constant dread and moodiness in her life.

He was a witness to what his love for Elena did. And he couldn't do that Bonnie.

However, he felt his reserve weakening by the look in her eyes. She meant what she said, that she loved him. He wanted to know when and how it happened because he hadn't done anything to earn her love. When he returned to Mystic Falls, he wasn't nice in his approach in retaining her help with Klaus' coffins. He insulted her when she confronted him on his rogue ways. Yet through all of that, a friendship was built from the rubble and now…it was turning into something that equally terrified him.

"For so long I didn't want to love anyone. Not after what happened to my Grams, and then with Jeremy…loving someone was the last thing I wanted to do, but these last few weeks between us, Stefan…they mean so much to me. And from what I see in your eyes, you're scared of the same thing."

He was terrified of loving her only because he thought it might be one-sided and that she'd somehow end up getting hurt. Stefan didn't care much what happened to him. But Bonnie, she had to be protected at all costs. Even protected from himself.

As much as he wanted to yield, he couldn't. Stefan stepped away, rupturing the spell.

"This can't happen between us, Bonnie. You need someone good in your life; someone who can give you a future that won't be filled with pain and disappointment."

Bonnie growled, entered his personal space, grabbed him by the back of the neck and brought his head down. Bonnie crashed her lips into Stefan's and at first he was too surprised to respond, but she persisted working her mouth over his, stabbing the crease between his lips trying to gain entry, when finally he gripped her right under her backside, lifting her, as he began to kiss her with months of pent up frustration.

She ran her fingers through his hair, scratching his scalp which sent sparks flying all over his body. Bonnie gripped him tightly, one for leverage, and the other so he couldn't escape.

The assault continued for minutes, hours, days, Bonnie wasn't too certain. Her lungs begged for oxygen but she didn't want to put an ounce of space between herself and Stefan.

Stefan fell backwards on the bed. Bonnie squealed briefly before moaning into another head spinning kiss from Stefan. She yelped again when he switched their positions and she was pinned against the mattress. He was perfectly content with just kissing her until she didn't have any lips left.

But his hands were desperate to know how the rest of her felt. So he languorously dragged his hands over her feet that were still trapped in her heels, over her shins before curving to massage her calf muscles, before journeying upwards.

Bonnie was delirious. That was the only way she could classify how she felt. Stefan was driving her crazy with his touches and caresses and she broke the kiss to catch her breath.

Reluctantly he pulled away and stared into her lust-filled eyes. "Bonnie…" he panted and planted his forehead on hers. "Are you…? Do you want to…?

Yeah, she was in agreement with whatever he had in mind. Rob a bank. Kick a toddler. Push an old person into traffic. Didn't matter. She didn't want him to stop kissing or touching her.

"Please…" she nearly purred like a little kitten.

Her hormones were more than likely talking. They had just established that they cared for one another and already they were about to do it. Stefan was old-fashioned in some respects and had embraced 21st century life in others, but in this particular area he wanted to do things the right way.

But still…Bonnie was looking at him like he was Superman who was more than willing to blast her insecurities away.

He kissed her senseless again and then, very tentatively, curled his fingers around the waistband of her undergarment and tugged.

Panic slammed into Bonnie once she realized _that's _what he meant. "Wait!" her heart was beating so hard she felt herself vibrating against the bed.

Stefan cocked an eyebrow in the air. "You're not…you want to wait?"

She thought for a moment, confused, terrified, and horny all rolled into a huge ball of uncertainty.

"Would you be mad if I said that I wanted to…wait?"

He shook his head. "No."

"That doesn't mean I don't want to," she added hastily.

He grinned. But then his jaw clenched because he could feel her heat and smell her. Oh, boy this was going to be hard.

"We'll wait," he decided and then very reluctantly fell beside her on the bed. He pulled down her dress, but confiscated the only souvenir he'd leave with. Her underwear.

"Bonnie…"

"Yeah?"

"I love you, too."

Chapter end.

**A/N: This chapter was wild because I didn't want to go the "traditional" route with coming to a viable agreement on how to handle the Elena situation. So Damon was used for stud services which I think was appropriate for him at least. And the thought of having a black vampire, I must admit came from a blogger from Tumblr who raised the question of why haven't there been any black vampires on TVD. And I'm hoping you know where I drew my inspiration from for Queen Aaliyah—Queen of the Damned ring any bells? But this was difficult to write simply because Stefan broke my heart, but I'm pressing through and I'm going to finish this story. And who's happy Stefonnie finally kissed! There are only two chapters left. I didn't intend for this to be long. But thanks again for reading! Love you guys!**


	5. Shoe Dropper

**A/N: Sorry for the delay. I got er…um distracted with the other story that I started last week. *wink wink* but here is the latest. This is how, in my opinion, the events leading up to what happened in 3x15 should have gone down.**

Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith and The CW. No copyright infringement is intended.

_His boots pounded the ground mercilessly as he ran through the forest at a break neck speed. He knew he shouldn't have left her alone, knew that she'd escape as soon as she was alone, and would go off on her own because she was supped up with a thousand years worth of power and energy. But what she failed to take into consideration was the fact that her spirit and will might be strong—it was her body that was expendable._

_Had she learned nothing from her grandmother's death?_

_Apparently not._

_Stefan pushed his body until he was nothing more than a blur. His feet hardly made contact with the ground because he was moving at the speed of light. Soon he was overcome with the scent of putrid air. Several people were burning on makeshift pyres, the scent alone making him gag. Stefan tried not to concentrate on it but found it overwhelming and was clogging up his dead lungs. If the scent was strong enough to make him nauseous he could only imagine what it would do to a pair of human lungs._

_As he neared the clearing in the woods where the ritual to end Klaus was supposed to take place, Stefan slowed his speed. To his right he saw his brother arm deep in hybrid guts before he yanked out an organ as intestines spilled to the floor. Stefan looked away from the gore and spotted several werewolves circling the ring of fire salivating, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike._

_An ear shattering scream pierced his ears and he looked up. Elijah held Elena around the throat—her back pressed against his chest. Her eyes were round orbs of fear as tears drenched her face. The ruthlessly handsome original turned her around, still holding her by the throat, brought her close and kissed her deeply._

"_I'm sorry things had to end this way, Elena. Please…when you're on your way to heaven or being dragged to hell, can you find it in your heart to forgive me?"_

_Elena scratched at his hands. "Elijah I'm sorry I betrayed you…but please don't do this."_

_Stefan momentarily looked away from the drama and brought his eyes back to the lone figure kneeling in the center of the fire. Bonnie wasn't chanting, she was crying and Stefan thought she might be crying for Elena, but then he realized she was rocking the body of her mother in her arms._

"_No…no…no…" she kept repeating. "This wasn't how it was supposed to happen."_

_Stefan was confused. What in the world had gone on during his absence? Was Abby dead or unconscious? It was really hard to tell since Bonnie's back was to him._

_Elena screamed again as Elijah stretched his arm out so he could dangle her over the steep incline._

_Klaus caught Stefan's attention next. He was crawling across the ground as if his legs were broken, and he was seemingly trying to reach an unconscious…no Stefan blinked his eyes and realized a large chunk of Caroline's neck was missing. She was dead._

_Damon was still up and agile on his feet as he ripped the head off another hybrid. _

_Stefan took a step out of the trees, his presence seemingly being ignored. He catalogued all the dismembered bodies that were strewn over the battlefield but the only thing he could honestly say he cared about was reaching Bonnie to make sure she was safe._

_He walked around the circle of fire, a little taken off guard that the werewolves hadn't pounced on him. They almost seemed to back up to give him room as if acknowledging him as the alpha. When he was able to see Bonnie he gasped._

_Large rivulets of blood poured from her nose, and tears coated her cheeks. Her eyes were focused on the sky as she continuously rocked Abby in her lap._

"_Bonnie," he said tentatively._

_Her head lolled forward and she pushed strands of hair off her mother's forehead. Stefan finally looked at Abby. Her eyes were wide open but they were soulless. He had seen and caused enough death to know when someone's soul left their body. _

_Elena screamed again which seemed to break Bonnie out of whatever trance she had been in. "Save her! Save her!"_

_Stefan wasn't sure if Bonnie was telling him to save Elena or if she were asking her ancestors to save Abby. Perhaps she meant both he wasn't really sure._

_When he turned around, Elena was already plummeting to the earth, and Stefan tried to speed over and break her fall, but his feet were literally stuck to the ground. So he had no choice but to watch in horror as Elena's head cracked open on the sharp rocks below. _

_Bonnie screamed, released Abby, lifted her hands and began chanting._

_Lightning stabbed the earth; the werewolves took off into the safety of the woods, and Bonnie systematically burst Elijah and Klaus into dust particles._

_The world around them grew painfully silent and finally recognition entered her eyes. She offered Stefan a tender smile before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she dropped to the ground._

"_NO!" he screamed. The ring of fire that had been protecting her extinguished and Stefan hurried over to Bonnie. He fell to his knees, picked her up until she rested on his lap as his hands fumbled with trying to find a pulse. He couldn't._

_He laid her flat on the ground, eyes filling with tears, as he administered CPR. Stefan had no air in his lungs, so he sucked in air from the atmospher and then forced it into Bonnie. Her chest rose and he pumped her heart, but her lips were turning bluer by the minute._

"_Bonnie, don't do this," he grunted as he repeated the process. "Come on!" _

_Damon approached, both of his hands covered up to his elbows in blood. "She dead my friend, muy dead."_

_Stefan growled, stopped working on Bonnie, and tackled his brother to the ground where he repeatedly punched him in the face. All Damon could do was laugh._

_Teeth flew into the air along with blood. Stefan was absolutely wild in his assault but stopped when he saw a woman dressed in all white walking through the destruction of the woods. She looked particularly proud of the carnage that laid at her feet._

_Stefan released Damon, his bent knuckles dripped with his brother's blood, as he rose to his feet._

"_I'm sorry that we've had to lose two more, my sisters, but it is finished," Esther said as she looked at the pile of dust that remained of her son Niklaus._

_Stefan's eyes bled to red and his fangs burst forth as he flashed over to Esther. Yet she had been expecting the attack and held out a hand which sent him careening through the air. He landed on top of sharp rocks and grunted when they became embedded in his flesh. _

"_You've lost a great deal, Stefan, and I commiserate with your pain, but now the balance has been set."_

"_Elena, Bonnie, and Abby losing their lives makes the balance set? Unacceptable."_

"_Not your choice to make. Just be content in the knowledge that she loved you and would have proudly died for you. She did all of this for you, Stefan."_

"_I didn't want her to die for me!" His eyes darkened with wrath and hatred. "I am going to gut you like a fish, Esther."_

_The woman in question lifted her chin imperiously. "I can make your dream to be with her come true, Stefan. But you have to really want it."_

_He thought for a moment. If he could be with Bonnie in any capacity it would be far better than living without her. Damon apparently was out of his mind, and Stefan had lived with him long enough. _

"_Do it, Esther. End me."_

_She grinned with pleasure. "As you wish."_

_And lightning, pure white heat struck his heart._

Stefan jolted up in bed, eyes darting back and forth. He ran both hands through his hair. He frowned a bit because this wasn't his room. He looked down at himself. Currently he was dressed in a white wife beater and he felt his boxer briefs hugging his legs, but this wasn't his bed he was propped up in.

The sound of soft naked feet padding against the hardwood floor caught his attention. His jaw became a little slack in relief as he gazed at Bonnie dressed in his button down.

She stopped just shy of entering her bedroom. From the expression on her face it was plain to see she was a little surprised to see him awake. In her hand was a steaming cup-Stefan sampled the air—she was carrying a steaming cup of coffee. Stefan lowered his hands from his head and Bonnie took that as her cue to enter her room.

Her lips were quirked in their notorious half grin as she sat next to him on the edge of the bed. "Are you all right?" she asked, her green eyes analyzing him.

Stefan wanted to touch her just to make sure she was real and that the nightmare he had was just that and not reality. He was comforted by the fact he felt her body heat beat against his skin.

"Yeah," he finally answered and cleared the frog out of his throat. "I am now. Good morning."

Her smile deepened. "Good morning. I thought you'd sleep a little later."

He was a bit confused. The last thing he remembered was having dinner with everyone at The Grill, and from there, Stefan vaguely remembered taking Bonnie home. Obviously he stayed the night, but did anything _else _happen?

Bonnie took a sip of the coffee before handing the mug over to him. "I think I've slept enough," he said and sipped the hot liquid into his mouth which burned his tongue but the pain ebbed away almost immediately.

"You kept mumbling in your sleep last night, Stefan. Are you sure you're okay?"

Stefan laid back against the pillows and reached for Bonnie's hand, entwining their fingers. "I told you I'm fine."

"You're lying to me," she said it so matter-of-fact that it caught him off guard and nearly had him swallow his tongue.

"I'm not," he argued.

Her lips thinned into a hard line. "You don't realize you get this slight panicky look to your face when something startles you or catches you off guard. When I entered the room you looked lost, perplexed, but above all that scared. You had a nightmare. I know you did. So spill. What was it about?"

"Pushy girlfriends who purposely look for trouble."

Bonnie stared at him drolly and then brightened. "So I'm your girlfriend now?"

Stefan hunched a shoulder and swallowed another tablespoon of coffee. "There's a vacancy if you want to fill it."

She snorted, picked up one of her accent pillows and proceeded to throttle him with it. "Boy, you sure do know how to make a girl feel special."

Stefan caught one edge of the pillow and ripped it clean out of Bonnie's grasp. "What can I say, it's my specialty." He patted the spot next to him. Bonnie shifted until she could use his body as a pillow. "So boss what's on the itinerary today? How many hybrids do I get to maim?"

"None. They all left town remember?"

"Damn. There goes my day."

Bonnie laughed and reached up to kiss his cheek. "Seriously, Stef…what did you dream about?"

He was already shaking his head. There was no way Stefan wanted to relive his dream. Vampires didn't necessarily have precognitive skills, but they relied on their instincts to sense when something bad was going to happen. He wouldn't exactly say his spidey sense was going off, but that dream…something didn't feel right. And he already knew something bad was going to happen.

That was a given in their situation.

Bonnie studied his face as Stefan got lost in his head. If she wanted to, she could go digging in his thoughts but that would be a severe invasion of privacy, and she had a strict policy against. But perhaps if she told him she could read minds, it might actually prompt him to be open and honest with her. There was only one way to find out.

"I need to tell you something," Bonnie said.

Stefan peered down at her, curious. "What is it?"

"I've developed some latent abilities." Pause. "Stefan I can read minds."

Stefan shifted a bit against the pillows, his lips pulled down at the corners as Bonnie's confession sunk down into his brain.

"You're a telepath now?"

She nodded her head. "And something of an empath, it's not as strong as the telepathy, thank God, but it's there."

Okay, so did that mean she's been reading his mind this whole time and knew that he liked her, liked her more than he had any business liking her and she played it cool just to spare his feelings?

As if reading his thoughts, ha, Bonnie swiftly said, "I don't go around reading thoughts. I have enough voices in my head as it is. But I catch thoughts if they're directed at me specifically. Sometimes I see images, or just disjointed words. But the reason I'm telling you this is…if you won't tell me about your dream…"

"You'll jack it out of my brain."

She shook her head. "No, but at least you should know I have the ability to do just that. If you and I are going to do this," she held up their joined hands, "for real then there can't be any secrets between us. Because I'll find out eventually," she added ominously.

They stared at one another. "All right, fine," he said and spent the next ten minutes filling her in on his dream.

"That's a lot to take in," Bonnie said after allowing Stefan's dream to penetrate and soak into her brain. As much as she may have wanted to write it off as being "just a dream" she had a sense that it might have been a prophecy as well. If that were the case, then that meant a variable they hadn't taken into consideration or overlooked was about to come and bite them in the ass.

Bonnie shot off the bed, walked over to her dresser and started pulling out clothes.

"Bonnie? What are you doing?"

She looked at him over his shoulder. "I'm going to go find out if the nightmare you had is a prophecy or just what it appeared. If it's the former, then we can't loiter in bed all day, no matter how much I may want to."

Right there she unbuttoned his shirt and let it flutter to the floor. Stefan's eyes widened as he stared at Bonnie in the buff as she proudly strutted to the connecting bathroom. Was that an open invitation to join her or had she just grown that comfortable having him around? In either case, Stefan threw the covers off, stripped out of his boxer briefs, wife beater, and entered her bathroom.

Bonnie squealed a bit when the shower curtain was pulled back and a rush of cold air assaulted her. "What are you doing?"

Instead of answering her question, Stefan merely entered her shower, pulling the curtain closed behind him and reaching for her spare loofah.

"There's no point in wasting water when we can shower together," he winked and poured a liberal amount of shower gel on the sponge and began to wash her back.

Bonnie shrugged and figured he had a point.

Stefan rubbed her back and shoulders in large and small circles, tracing the curve of her spine with his fingers, dipping a bit to place a kiss on the birth mark on her left shoulder.

Heat spread through Bonnie like a wild fire and heightened. Stefan turned Bonnie around and captured her lips in a dizzying kiss that boiled her blood.

They remained that way until the hot water turned cold forcing them out of the shower.

* * *

><p>An hour and ten minutes later Bonnie sat at the head of the Salvatore formal dining room table with her head in her hands. If she didn't keep them there she might be tempted to wrap them around her friend's slender neck.<p>

The entire room and all its occupants were as silent as the grave. No one made a single sound, afraid that it might wake the beast that was slumbering in the newly appointed queen, and no one wanted to suffer her wrath.

Tears rolled down Elena's cheeks. She was so nervous and worried that her body was trembling in expectation of the worst. In just a single conversation she had unraveled everything Bonnie, Damon, and Stefan had accomplished during their four-day trip to London.

Bonnie wasn't the only person who was furious. Stefan sat like a piece of stone in his seat, his legs crossed casually as a lone hand rested on the arm of the chair. Unfortunately his fingers were biting into the wood, denting the craftsmanship with his grip as he thought of clever ways to teach Elena the importance of minding her business.

The tension was palpable and Caroline hoped that someone would chip away the ice that was encasing the room. Her gaze went over to Damon, and as usual his eyes were wild. He wouldn't be a good candidate to resume order to the meeting. Alaric looked just as frustrated but also resigned to the fallout of Elena's actions. Bonnie and Stefan…Stefan looked calm—too calm which immediately rang bells that Stefan the Ripper would be making a special guest start appearance. And since Bonnie was holding her head in her hands, Caroline had no idea what her facial expression was. But she felt energy pop and crackle in her ears. Bonnie was ready to blow.

"Elena," Bonnie said in such a torturously slow way that it almost sounded like nails on a chalkboard. "What was so _hard _about keeping your mouth shut!"

Bonnie snapped her head up at the tail end of her sentence and planted hostile eyes on her best friend.

The long-haired brunette nervously licked her lips and brushed the tears off her face. "I'm sorry, Bonnie, but he just showed up at my house…and…I panicked…I tried not to say anything…but he just…he just wouldn't stop asking me if I had been telling the truth the night of the ball…"

Bonnie held up a hand imperiously to get Elena to shut up. She snorted derisively. "What I don't understand is why you would go _anywhere _with Elijah, alone and unprotected. He is not your best friend, he does not have your best interest at heart. He chooses to be noble when it benefits him, but Elijah has been alive for a thousand years. Do you honestly _think,"_ Bonnie pointed at her own head to emphasize her point, "he wouldn't do everything in his power to save his life?" She stood up from her chair so abruptly it fell backwards. "AND NOW ME OR MY MOTHER MIGHT LOSE OUR LIFE BECAUSE YOU COULDN'T KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!"

There was no fire burning in the fireplace but one erupted spontaneously catching everyone save Bonnie off guard.

Silence engulfed the room. No one was coming to Elena's defense.

Bonnie's beautiful face was twisted into an angry snarl as she glared at Elena wondering why did this chick have to be so dumb at the most inconvenient times. She loved her but right now she'd like nothing more than to snap her neck.

The next time she spoke, Bonnie's voice was almost a whisper. "He knows about the ritual and he figures that the only way to disconnect Esther from channeling me and Abby is if one or both of us dies. But here's the kicker, he doesn't know that Esther can channel power from both living _and _dead Bennett's. And do you know what that means, my idiot friend?" Bonnie paused to give Elena the opportunity to work out the equation in her head. Her eyes widened when she figured it out and all Bonnie could do was nod solemnly.

"That's right," she went on to say. "Either Abby becomes a vampire or I do."

The chair that was toppled on the floor instantly righted itself as soon as Bonnie began to sit down.

Elena shook her head back and forth, her mouth opening and closing. "But-but-but there has to be another way!" she searched the faces of everyone who was gathered. No one, however, was looking back at her.

"How else do you expect the connection to be broken, Elena?" Stefan thundered, his voice like liquid being poured over ice. "The only way for the line to be severed is if a Bennett is no longer human because it's against nature's laws to be both at once."

"But I didn't know!" she screamed hysterically. "If I had known any of that I wouldn't have said a word."

"You shouldn't have said anything to start with," Damon added and then snorted. "I guess you must have forgotten he was willing to kill you in order to keep Klaus from breaking the curse. You screwed your friends, Elena because your conscience got in the way." Damon held up his whiskey glass, "Happy Tuesday!"

"Bonnie," Elena pleaded. "There's still time to fix this. We can tell Esther that Elijah knows about the ritual and what he's willing to do to stop it. She's a witch, she'll want to protect you and Abby from becoming a vampire and maybe she won't go through with it."

"I wish it were that simple," Bonnie said. "But Esther feels it's her duty to fix what she created and this 'snag'," air quotation marks, "won't throw her off course. She might delay it for another month, but she will try again. And every time she sets out to perform the spell, that puts me and my mom on Elijah's hit list again."

Bonnie went stone still, her eyes became opaque and she appeared to be listening to something only she could hear. Stefan straightened in his chair his attention completely on her.

He reached for her hand, wrapping his large palm around her slender fingers. Elena's eyes dropped to their combined hands, a crease forming in the middle of her forehead.

A second or two passed before Bonnie rapidly blinked her eyes and looked at Stefan. She smiled at him affectionately.

"I was just getting some final instructions…from my grandmother."

Nearly everyone lost their eyebrows to their hairline. "She can…she can talk to you?" Caroline was astonished.

"Now that I have my ancestors power it's opened up another channel of communication. They can't see into the future of course, but they can see things which are currently happening, and right now, Queen Aaliyah and her entourage as well as her werewolf allies are en route. They'll be here by nightfall."

Upon hearing the queen's name that he spent three straight days having sex with, Damon immediately became interested in pouring himself another drink as he felt his testicles attempt to shrink up and hide.

"Will they get here before Esther starts the ritual?" asked Alaric.

"I'm not sure. If Stefan's dream is a prophecy, they'll get here right in the middle of it."

"But it wasn't exactly made clear if Abby became a vampire," Caroline pointed out.

"No it wasn't," Stefan replied. "And maybe my dream is just a solitary version of what _could_ happen tonight but not necessarily what _will_ happen."

Caroline gulped nervously. She certainly hoped so. According to Stefan's dream she would be missing a large chunk of her throat and Caroline was in no mood to die. Elena stood to get her head cracked open like an egg. Abby was dead but there was a question mark on how that exactly happened, and Bonnie would be so enraged that she pulverized Elijah and Klaus into dust thereby killing herself from the exertion. And Damon would be a looney tune which she didn't find surprising in the least.

"Well," Damon remarked, "there's one thing for certain. Elijah has probably run off and told Klaus about their mom's plan so that means he'll be calling in his mindless hobbits I'm mean hybrids," he snickered, "to report back to base. Rebekah will more than likely try to rip your," pointed at Elena, "pretty little throat out for yet another betrayal. And if Esther learns that her children know she's plotting their deaths, if they haven't killed her already, they most certainly will."

"If they can find her," Bonnie interjected. "She's gone into hiding with Finn until tonight."

Damon narrowed his eyes before widening them at Bonnie. "Do you know where she is?

Bonnie shook her head. "The less I know the better off I'll be. Right now, I need to get ready."

"Bonnie, you aren't really going to be apart of this? Not after learning what Elena just blabbed about?" Caroline questioned.

"I don't have a choice, Caroline. Everything unfolds tonight regardless. Aaliyah, her nest of vampires, werewolves, and hybrids are all going to be here, and measures will have to be taken to make sure no one in town gets hurt. Damon, can you call the Sheriff and the mayor and ask if they can close all the parks. We don't need Ken and Barbie getting eaten because they couldn't afford to take their business to a hotel."

Damon nodded his head and pulled out his cell.

Stefan just wanted to pull Bonnie on his lap and kiss her senseless. He always had a weakness for strong women who took names and kicked butt.

"And me, toravich?" Stefan penetrated her with his bluish-gray eyes. "Where do you want me?"

Bonnie bit a corner of her lip as all sorts of thoughts entered her mind. While she was so busy thinking of a creative answer to his question, she failed to realize all the confused looks that were being thrown around the table.

"By my side of course."

He grinned.

"Damon, too."

He frowned.

"I need the both of you with me tonight because you'll be expected to be there."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? I mean…if all else fails and the connection has to be severed and we can't find another way to do that then either you or Abby will have to be turned, so it would fall to either me or Stefan to do the deed."

Damon had a point but there was no way Bonnie was going to walk into this potential blood bath alone. It was a risk she was a little reluctant to take but figured there wasn't enough time to formulate another way.

"I have all this power for a reason," Bonnie repeated words she had spoken to Jeremy so many months ago when she was willing to lay it all out on the line. She felt stronger, could do more things, but Bonnie didn't want to overestimate herself and assume she could end Klaus and whoever else got in her way with a single thought and think there wouldn't be any consequences. No matter how much power she had, she still had to exercise caution.

"Maybe I can find a loophole," she speculated.

"Is there anything we can do?" Alaric said indicating himself and Caroline in particular.

Bonnie stared at her history teacher. "Yeah, lock up Elena."

Both the dirty blonde and platinum blond nodded their heads.

"Wait, what?" Elena sputtered.

Several people looked at her sharply.

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "In case you missed this memo, you are a very big key to making hybrids. The werewolves who want to be hybrids will be gunning for you so I'm not going to stick you on a silver platter and hand you over. You're not going to be anywhere near the ritual site, Elena and that's final. Better yet, you won't be in town period. New plan, Ric, Caroline take Elena to the lakehouse."

Elena began to plead her case. "I know I messed up by telling Elijah what his mother has planned…but I think I can fix things. Just…just give me a chance to speak to Esther."

Bonnie rose from her seat and approached Elena. "I don't know how tonight is going to end, but there's several things I want to tell you." She took a deep breath. "First, you're my best friend but you have seriously pissed me off to the point I'm finding it hard to look at you without wanting to smack you. Second, I appreciate you want to help, but you are human and breakable and only make things worse when you try to lend a hand. Third, please realize that this whole thing is much bigger than you and everyone assembled and that it'll be for the best if you stay the hell out of it. And fourth, Stefan and I kissed in London, it was great and I plan on doing it again."

Damon automatically looked at his brother and pointed his finger between Stefan and Bonnie in question. All Stefan could do was nod his head. Caroline and Alaric looked at one another feeling dubious and morbidly interested in what Elena's response might be. Elena for her part looked lost and perplexed as if it were taking a second for her to decipher what Bonnie just said.

Color began to rise up Elena's neck. "You…you kissed Stefan? In London? And you plan on kissing him again?"

"Yes," Bonnie said softly. "I know you love him and that you were hoping he'd admit that he loves you back and you two could resume your relationship, but I think you both know that it's over. He's not the Stefan you fell in love with."

"But…" new tears were lining Elena's eyes. She forced her eyes away from Bonnie to stare at Stefan. She was hoping he'd look repentant for kissing her best friend, but he didn't. In fact he looked relieved that the truth was out.

"But…"Elena was speechless.

"Don't look so devastated, honey," Damon dead panned. "You and I kissed."

"Shut up, Damon!" Elena exploded.

_This is better than daytime television, _Caroline could hardly sit still in her seat.

"I know this…changes things between us," Bonnie resumed their conversation, "but you're still my friend, my sister and that's all that matters from here on out. We can talk more later, but right now there's something else I have to do."

"What?" Elena barked, trying to find her strength again. "Ever since this stupid sun and moon curse thing started each and every single one of you has treated me like a child, took away my right to make my own choices and what has it gotten anyone? Gotten me? Nothing. And you stand here in front of me telling me so nonchalantly that you kissed my ex-boyfriend and I'm just supposed to accept it and go into exile while everyone else stands to lose their life!" Elena emphatically shook her head. "I'm not going anywhere. This is my town."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "I figured you'd be difficult." Without saying anything else she touched Elena on the head. Elena's eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she fell to the floor, but Damon caught her before she landed.

"She'll be out long enough for you to make it to the lakehouse. Go."

Alaric and Caroline stood up from their seats. Damon handed Elena over to Ric. Caroline stopped in front of Bonnie and pulled her into her arms.

"Please…don't die," she whispered in her friend's ear.

Bonnie smiled and felt her eyes pricking with tears as she hugged Caroline back. "I'll do my best not to."

They embraced one another for a minute longer before Caroline pulled away. "I'll talk to Elena."

Bonnie waved her suggestion off. "That won't be necessary. I'll deal with her when this whole thing is over. Just tell her…I love her."

Caroline nodded her head. "I love you, Bonnie."

"And I love you, Caroline. Please be safe. See if you can convince Tyler to go with you."

"All right." Hands still clasped, Caroline held on as long as she could even as she began to walk towards the front door.

Bonnie wiped away a tear and felt Stefan standing beside her.

"We have seven hours until the full moon. What do you want to do?" he asked.

Bonnie inclined her head to look up at him. "I want to be with you, Stefan," she shifted her body so she could stand in front of him. Bonnie placed her hands on his shoulders while Stefan held on to her hips. She stood on her toes in order to reach his lips and they kissed as if there was no tomorrow, which there might not be if everything blew up in their face.

When air became a necessity, Bonnie pulled away and looked deep into his eyes. "I want to be with you, Stefan," she reiterated, "Make love to me."

TBC.

**A/N: I really didn't know where I wanted to go with this chapter. I wasn't sure if I wanted to show the great fight or not, and I still haven't decided because that would be very detail oriented and it would take time away from Stefonnie. I might just summarize what happens, or maybe nothing will happen at all. I haven't decided yet. But thanks for your patience, and for reading and leaving me your thoughts. Love you guys!**


	6. Moment of Truth

**A/N: And here is the final chapter in Sanctuary Souls. I had to make some drastic edits towards the end. My bad. Happy reading.  
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Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith and The CW. No copyright infringement is intended.

"_We have seven hours until the full moon. What do you want to do?" he asked._

_Bonnie inclined her head to look up at him. "I want to be with you, Stefan," she shifted her body so she could stand in front of him. Bonnie placed her hands on his shoulders while Stefan held on to her hips. She stood on her toes in order to reach his lips and they kissed as if there was no tomorrow, which there might not be if everything blew up in their face._

_When air became a necessity, Bonnie pulled away and looked deep into his eyes. "I want to be with you, Stefan," she reiterated, "Make love to me." _

Stefan cocked his head unsure if he heard properly. Bonnie wanted him to make love to her? Tonight? Just hours before they were scheduled for war which might cost them their lives? If he wanted to be objective about this, he'd say they should focus on formulizing some type of plan that wouldn't mean imminent death or Bonnie or Abby having to be placed on the sacrificial altar and turned into vampires.

He cupped her cheek, his eyes taking note of everything about her he's come to love in the last few months. When he first met Bonnie he thought she was a beautiful girl who would turn into a stunning woman capable of setting a million hearts on fire simultaneously. He never would have imagined his heart would be one of the one's cast into the fire.

Right now it was taking everything in him not to suggest they run off and get lost in a desert or in a tropical paradise and let the whole Klaus thing blow over their heads. But he knew Bonnie's character. Knew she wouldn't run from this fight no matter how agreeable an alternative might be. She was as stubborn as a mule, but her heart was much larger than her desire to simply live for herself.

Bonnie stared nervously up at Stefan because he hadn't said anything. "Stefan?"

He blinked his eyes and smiled. "Are you sure?"

She nodded her head. "I don't know what's going to happen tonight, but I don't want to die not knowing what you feel like."

Stefan gulped and felt his body stirring at her invitation. He wanted nothing more than to bury himself to the hilt in her, but he wanted Bonnie to want this for the simple satisfaction of being with him, not as an item to cross off her bucket list.

However when she looked at him as if he hung the moon and the stars just for her, Stefan felt his resistance weakening.

Thus, it prompted Stefan to kiss her reverently. Bonnie slid her tongue out of her mouth and ran it across his bottom lip. Her fingers got lost in the hair at the nape of his neck as she brought him closer, sealing her lips over his.

"Well isn't this lovely."

Both Bonnie and Stefan froze and disengaged from one another. Stefan turned until he faced the entrance of the living room. He shifted until he stood next to Bonnie and they watched with enlarged eyes as the Mikaelson clan strolled into the Salvatore boardinghouse as if they paid the bills.

Stefan blindly reached for Bonnie's hand. She linked her fingers with his. She knew he was doing this more so for a tactical reason if they had to make a run for it.

"Don't stop on our account," Rebekah said with a hint of resentment dancing in her blue eyes.

Damon entered the living room from the adjacent hall and slid to a stop on his feet. "Oh, I didn't know we were expecting guests. What's up?"

"Damon," Rebekah pouted. "You never called."

He snapped his fingers. "I knew there was something I forgot to do."

"Quiet, all of you," Elijah said calmly yet Bonnie figured he was the most deadly one. Because he could appear to be so laid-back when he did strike it always caught you off guard. He stood proudly next to Klaus and Bonnie found herself wondering for the first time between them who was the oldest? More than likely it was Elijah. Besides he also dressed as if he were about to do a corporation takeover.

He zapped his dark brown eyes on Bonnie and she didn't recoil from his glare. She merely raised a challenging eyebrow in the air. There was no need to pretend he wasn't aware of the contract his mother put on him, or the alliance Bonnie forged with Esther to allow her to channel her power to do the ritual necessary to kill her children.

"You're been a naughty witch, Bonnie," Elijah shook his head in disappointment. "You had my brother Kol and me at your entire disposal in England when the whole time you knew my mother was going to kill us."

"It would have been a bad business deal on my end to make you aware of that ahead of time," Bonnie replied.

Bonnie looked at Kol. He didn't seem angry or resigned more amused. That probably wasn't a good sign.

"What are you doing here?" Stefan interjected.

Klaus took a step forward out of the line his siblings created. "I would think it's more than obvious, Stefan. We're here to do one simple thing: exterminate the source of our impending death."

Bonnie didn't wither under the glares that were directed at her. Instead she concentrated. _Damon, don't jump._

He jumped, only a little but luckily no one had picked up on it. A question mark, however, formed on his face because it wasn't everyday he heard voices in his head.

_Bonnie?_

_Yes. _

_How are you talking to me in my head?_

_I don't have time to explain. Where's the dagger?_

_In my underwear drawer._

_*sighs* Naturally. Stefan?_

For his part Stefan didn't jump or turn his head to regard Bonnie. He kept his face forward as he listened to the many ways Klaus was going to enjoy dismembering the lot of them while sitting down to have a cup of tea afterward.

_Yes? _He answered_._

_We need to get out of here. Lead the psycho family away so Damon has time to get the dagger out of his room and then…well I would have to be the one to plunge it in one of their chests._

_No! Bonnie, that's too dangerous._

_We don't have a choice. You and Damon can't do it without signing your own death certificate. I'm the only human around. _

_Bonnie…_

_Stefan, don't argue with me on this. Damon, I want you to run, not to your room, but just run some place in exactly five seconds. Stefan, I need you to get me out of here. Damon, meet us in the woods. We'll be heading towards the old Lockwood property._

_Bonnie this is crazy, _Stefan argued.

_Yeah, well this is the only plan that may save our lives. If I have to walk through a field full of land mines I'd do it. This ends tonight, Stefan. One way or the other._

By the time they finished their telepathetic conversation, Klaus had stopped talking.

"So," Klaus resumed speaking after taking a dramatic pause. "How do you wish to proceed?"

"I'm going to enjoy breaking your neck, Damon," said Kol. "Who knows I might even turn it into a game."

"Why don't we get started…right now!" Damon shouted and then beamed out of the room going warp speed. Kol went after him and while that took place, Stefan clutched Bonnie by the hand and zoomed out of the living room, running right past the remaining Originals and headed into the woods.

At some point, Bonnie found herself being hoisted in the air before Stefan caught her and held her bridal style as he ran with all his speed towards the old Lockwood property. He could hear Rebekah, Klaus, and Elijah gaining speed on them. He had no idea if his brother was able to shake Kol long enough to backtrack and head up to his room to retrieve the dagger. He couldn't concern himself with his brother's progress or lack thereof. His present dilemma was protecting Bonnie. He could head to the cave, toss Bonnie in the part that kept vampires from entering and then…okay scrap that. He and Damon would have to double team one of the Originals—more than likely Rebekah to get her to stay still long enough for Bonnie to dagger her.

And that would only work if the Mikaelson siblings split up which Stefan figured wouldn't be happening. Plus he doubted very seriously that Elijah and Klaus would sit idly by and watch Bonnie kill their sister.

"Where's Damon?" Stefan asked Bonnie.

She closed her eyes and tried to probe for his brother's mind. "He has the dagger, but he lost Kol."

Stefan cursed. That nut job could be anywhere.

Something broke several tree branches from up above and the next thing Stefan knew, a weight in the form of a five-ten one hundred and seventy-five pound man landed on top of him. Bonnie flew out of his arms, as his body connected with the hard ground below.

Bonnie screamed as she flew through the air and smashed into a tree. The wind was knocked out of her but other than that jarring sensation, she was fine. Slowly she got up to her feet, and saw Kol with his foot braced on Stefan's neck.

"I've got him!" Kol said to the darkness.

Bonnie could barely make out pale white shapes as they converged on the area. Holding out her hand, she broke Kol's knee cap bringing the man down to the dirt ground. He roared in pain and Stefan took that as his opportunity to scramble to his feet and make his way to Bonnie.

Klaus, however had other plans for Stefan as he landed in front of him, punched Stefan with enough force that he went careening backwards into the nearest tree.

Elijah grabbed him the collar of his shirt and began to wail on him.

Rebekah joined in on the action as Klaus looked on as if he were the choreographer of this horrendous dance. Blood burst from Stefan's nose, spewed from his mouth, went spiraling through the air. And Bonnie felt each individual blow.

Bonnie thought sadly to herself, _you are about to experience a Bella Swan moment in 5, 4, 3, 2…_

"Stop! Kill me!" she raged.

"Bonnie, don't!" Stefan coughed.

Rebekah was the one who instantly took her proposal into consideration. Her hand was wrapped around Bonnie's neck before she even the chance to blink.

Elijah ceased wailing on Stefan whose head lolled as blood dripped from his nose and caked a corner of his mouth.

"I'm going to take great pleasure in revealing your betrayal with Stefan to Elena before _eating_ her heart out."

"Rebekah," Klaus reproached to which she rolled her eyes.

Bonnie titled her chin up despite the pressure that was wrapped around her neck. "She knows," Bonnie croaked.

If hearing that news surprised Rebekah she didn't let it show. "Drat," she said. "Well, brothers should we triple drain her now?"

Kol flashed behind Bonnie and pinned her arms behind her back. "I've been waiting for this all night," he licked Bonnie's neck to which she jerked away from his frosty tongue.

Rebekah lovingly swept Bonnie's hair off her shoulders.

"Stop!" Stefan shouted from his crumbled position on the ground. "It won't matter if you kill her because Esther can still channel power from living _and _dead Bennett's."

"Stefan shut up!" Bonnie ordered.

Elijah peered down at him. "You're lying."

"Why would I lie about that? Go ahead, kill her, make a meal out of her. Esther will still be able to complete the ritual regardless of her being alive or dead."

Uncertainty flashed through all of the Originals.

"I don't care what he says," Kol spoke out. "I've had my eyes on this one," indicating Bonnie by jerking her, "since the night of the ball, and I deserve a reward for my patience."

"I should tell you something about my brother Kol…he's a messy eater," Rebekah confessed. "He can put a shark to shame. It's quite disgusting actually to watch him…"

Bonnie focused her attention on Rebekah and one minute her voice filled the air and the next, her mouth moved yet no sound followed.

Several eyebrows lifted.

Klaus, who appeared to be the most impressed, smiled. "I've wanted to do that for years. I'll make sure your funeral is beautiful, Bonnie as a show of my gratitude."

Rebekah grabbed her throat and glared at her brother.

Elijah, the most impatient one strode over. "You are just full of surprises, Miss Bennett. It's a shame everything has to end like this."

"I wouldn't make that judgment so hastily, Elijah" Damon interrupted as he sat perched in a tree not ten feet away.

Growls rang through the air.

Elijah attempted to speed over and scale the tree to reach Damon, yet found his feet glued to the ground. "Release me," he demanded of Bonnie who merely shook her head.

"Enough with the tricks, witch! Everything ends tonight," Klaus prophesized.

"Yes it does," a new voice entered the picture. And before Klaus had the chance to turn around, a hand was punched through his back; fingers dug their way through his ribcage shattering the bones as if they were twigs, before they gripped his heart and yanked it through the crude opening.

Klaus' eyes were round dark blue orbs of surprise. His blood red lips moved like a fish before he fell to his knees, and landed face first in the ground.

The other Originals: Kol, Rebekah, and Elijah joined their dead brother on the ground, eyes rolled into the back of their heads.

Bonnie dropped to knees and wheezed as air rushed into her lungs. She took a moment to collect herself prior to smiling appreciatively towards the figure that held Klaus' heart in her hand.

Ice-green eyes stared back at Bonnie.

"Queen Aaliyah," Bonnie got to her feet and attempted to curtsy.

Queen Aaliyah returned the gesture and then one of her servants approached her with a gilded chest, opened up the hood to reveal velvet lining in which Aaliyah placed Klaus' heart inside. Another servant approached and wiped the blood off her hand.

Damon jumped down from the tree, kicked Elijah until he rolled on his back. He approached the queen, took her by the hand and kissed it.

"You got here just in the knick of time."

"It's my specialty." She flicked her eyes down at Klaus. "See I told you he would be easy for me to kill. I'm older than him, faster, stronger…"

"Prettier," Damon complimented.

"All we needed was for someone to set the stage. Your Queen is very resourceful."

Damon turned his attention to Bonnie. "Yeah, she is."

Bonnie and Stefan, lost in their own world seemed just as surprised that the war he started with Klaus was finally over. She and everyone she cared about was alive. Stefan pulled Bonnie into his arms and kissed the crown of her head.

"It's finally over."

* * *

><p><strong>Three weeks later<strong>

Bonnie eyed her reflection in the vanity mirror. Her thoughts shifted from event to event until it was nothing but one big massive ball of information overload. The enemy they had sought out to stop and kill for the past year and some change was left to rot in the woods of Mystic Falls in an unmarked grave. Bonnie along with her mother and Esther had cast a spell over the area so that any Klaus sympathizers who might be out there, wouldn't be able to resurrect his body for any purpose.

Elena was mad for all of three seconds after she came out of the induced coma Bonnie placed her into. Ric was about half way to the lake house when he received the call from Damon alerting him that all was well and he could turn around and come back home.

Tyler was finally liberated from Klaus' sire bond and was now trying to repair the damage that had been done to his and Caroline's relationship.

With nothing more to do than enjoy life and finish high school, Bonnie and Stefan took off the first chance they got.

The farthest west Bonnie had been outside of Mystic Falls was Roanoke, Virginia. At present Stefan had whisked her away to Aspen, Colorado where they've been for the last two days, living it up at a luxurious resort whose clientele was mostly celebrities and the rich and powerful.

This was the last night of their trip.

Bonnie picked up her perfume bottle and sprayed her wrists and her neck, and took a deep breath. Stefan was finishing up in the shower after they had spent the day on the slopes as he taught Bonnie the fundamentals of skiing. It was fun until she nearly ran into a tree, but it was an experience she wouldn't alter or change for the world.

The door to the bathroom flew open and Stefan strolled out, shirtless, with his pajama pants riding low on his hips. Bonnie kept her eyes on him through the reflection of the mirror as he strode towards the bed and flounced on it.

Her hands dropped down to the knot in her robe and she licked her lips.

"Bonnie? You coming to bed?"

His voice made her heart take off in her chest. Bonnie steeled her spine and nodded her head. She undid the knot and then turned around.

Stefan's eyes nearly popped out of his sockets. He blinked a few times to make sure he was seeing Bonnie dressed in a fire engine red lacy one piece properly. He had been on his best behavior on this entire trip, doing nothing more than sharing searing hot kisses, and fondling certain body parts. He leaned up in bed and scooted to the edge reaching for Bonnie.

He pierced her with his bluish-gray eyes. "Are you sure?"

Bonnie nodded her head and pushed the robe off her shoulders. It fluttered to her feet. "We've been through hell and back. And I want this, want you more than anything."

He was sold!

**(A/N: If you've read this before I had to edit the *lemons* part out. Sorry)**

Bonnie had been worried she wouldn't measure up against all 162 years of Stefan's experience. But he spurred her on by saying encouraging words, and showing with his facial expressions and deep kisses that he was more than enjoying himself.

There was pain-naturally, which Stefan compensated with unrelenting pleasure that several times Bonnie became short of breath and saw stars dancing behind her closed eyelids.

The hours shifted until it was very late in the night, or very early in the morning depending on one's matter of perspective and time. Shockwaves targeted specific places on Bonnie's body making her jerk involuntarily, which only made Stefan's grin that much more smug.

Sated, Stefan grabbed the comforter that somehow found its way on the floor and covered them up.

"Are you okay?" he asked and nipped her fingers with his teeth.

Bonnie nodded her head. She wanted to burst into tears not because she regretted her actions, but because her heart felt like it was too full of love and she didn't know what to do with it. She loved Stefan with every fiber of her being and she never wanted to lose him.

"I've never…" she cleared her throat. "I've never done that before," she grinned sheepishly.

Stefan snorted and pulled her closer to his chest. "And I'm glad you picked me to be your first. Do you regret that it happened?"

"No," Bonnie answered quickly. "My only regret is that we didn't do it sooner."

Stefan chuckled and then sobered. He stared at her seriously. "This changes everything," he said gravelly.

"Does it have to?"

Stefan didn't answer right away, but gently kissed Bonnie. "Yes, because it'll be a cold day in hell before I let you go."

Relief washed through Bonnie and she maneuvered in bed so she could straddle his hips.

"I love you, Stefan Salvatore."

"And I love you, Bonnie Bennett."

The end.

**A/N: I should explain how Queen Aaliyah was able to kill Klaus with little difficulty. In this she is a different "species" of vampire so she's older than Klaus, stronger, and the like. She can walk in daylight, vervain has no effect on her, so in other words she has very little vulnerabilities. And besides, the Mikaelson family and their drama just needed to end in the quickest and most convenient way possible, so Queen Aaliyah stepped into the picture and ended it. And I'm sure some might feel Stefonnie is ending where it should start, but this story was never meant to be longer than these six chapters. Thank you so much for giving it a chance, and for reading. Love you guys!  
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